tampered | Log; ongoing

Log; ongoing

When; Sunday morning
Rating; PG
Characters; Morgana (

sleepyseer), Gwen (

the_futurequeen), Arthur (

thefutureking), and Mordred (

eyesoncamlann)
Summary; Morgana wakes up to see Uther's ghost.
Log; Once again, Morgana dreamed.

"You have been a blessing to me, Morgana. You've been the daughter I never had. Your counsel is invaluable as is your friendship and your love. Without you I cannot hope to be the king this land deserves."

With every word, Tauren drew closer. Morgana could hardly breathe; her mind was spinning. "My lord --"

"Please forgive me, Morgana."'

Tauren raised his sword --

"NO!" Morgana woke abruptly, her eyes staring blindly at the ceiling as tears rolled down her cheeks. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Just her mind working through things that were troubling it.

"How could you do this to me, Morgana?" And there he was at the foot of her bed, staring at her with eyes full of anger and betrayal.

Her heart stopped. "No..." She could barely get the word out.

"I loved you," Uther told her. "I cared for you. And you killed me."

Morgana screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

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Because they shared a connection, Mordred sensed Morgana's distress before she screamed. Uther- the one persistent thought he heard over and over again. Uther.

The tyrant, the murderer...he wasn't in the City. Everyone would know it if he were. So why-

Mordred climbed out of his bed and made his way across the hall to Morgana's room, calling to her telepathically before he reached it.

Morgana heard Mordred's voice in her mind but it meant nothing to her. Her entire being was focused on the man at the foot of her bed. She wasn't even aware she was still screaming.

Suddenly Uther was no longer at the foot of the bed; he was at her side, his hand grabbing her throat. "You killed me," he snarled. "You killed your king. You killed Arthur's father. How could you?"

Arthur heard the screaming from next door, loud enough to wake him from his sleep. Without hesitation he jumped out of bed, snatched up his sword, and rushed out of the apartment. He unlcoked the door to Gwen, Morgana, and Mordred's room as quickly as possible and rushed into Morgana's quarters, sword at the ready.

"Morganana, what's wrong?" he asked, eyes wide with worry.

Uther's fingers tightened around her throat. Morgana clawed at his hand, trying to call upon the old anger that gave her the strength to withstand his brutal temper before, but it wouldn't come. There was only overwhelming guilt.

Morgana seemed to be having some sort of waking nightmare. Her hands were tearing at her throat but there was nothing there. Droppping his sword, Arthur rushed to her side and took hold of her hands.

"Morgana!" he shouted, shaking her a bit. "Stop it! It's me, Arthur. There's no one here!"

For one terrible moment Uther and Arthur overlapped. Morgana fought against Arthur's hold, sobbing "No" over and over and over, her vision going black from lack of air.

Suddenly Uther was gone and she could breath again. Gasping for air, she stopped struggling and met Arthur's eyes, truly seeing him for the first time.

Arthur continued to hold Morgana's hands, worried that she might hhurt herself in her panic. Their eyes locked though and it seemed as if she was actually looking at him and not her nightmare.

"Morgana, it's alright," he told her, nothing but concern expressed in his face. "You're safe, there's no one trying to hurt you."

She could still feel Uther's ghost in the room, though she couldn't see him.

Murderer.

Kingslayer.

Father-killer.

Her guilt burned where Arthur's hands held her; she tried weakly to pull her arms away, but her heart wasn't in it. He seemed to be the only thing keeping Uther at bay.

Arthur pressed the back of his hand to Morgana's forehead. It was definitely warm and she might have a fever, so perhaps that was the problem.

"You're burning up, let me get you something to drink," he offered.

He was leaving. If he left, Uther would come back. She grabbed his arms, her fingers digging in enough to hurt. "Don't leave," she begged him. "You can't leave. He'll come back."

Arthur's normally short tolerance for Morgana was lengthened by the fact that she was honestly distressed. However often they fought Arthur genuinely cared for her. Crouching down next to her he held on to her hand.

"Who will come back?" Arthur asked.

"U-" She couldn't say it. He couldn't know. If she said it, he would wonder, and he would question, and he would find out the truth. "Just stay here. Please."

"Alright, I'll stay here," Arthur said, reaching out to pull a nearby chair next to her bed. "But if someone is bothering you Morgana you can tell me about it."

Morgana relaxed as Arthur sat beside her. She wiped her eyes and slowly the dream receded from her mind. As she recovered herself, she felt a little bit ridiculous. It was one thing for Gwen to see her like this; Gwen was her best friend. Gwen had helped sooth her nightmares since they were both very young. But Arthur hadn't seen her after a nightmare since they were very, very small. He only knew about the nightmares because they were the court's worst kept secret.

"It was nothing, just a dream," she said, her voice recovering some of its old strength. Before she realized it, the words were out of her mouth. "I thought I saw your father." She quickly added: "Obviously Merlin's sleeping drought isn't working anymore" to cover it up.

Arthur listened to Morgana, holding her hand with one of his while his other pressed against her forehead again to feel her temperature. It seemed to have gone down a bit, which was good.

When she mentioned that she had thought he had seen his father, he could understand her terror. Uther doted on Morgana was much as he had ever doted on anyone, more so than he did Arthur, but he was still a man with a very bad temper.

"You're right, it was just a dream," he reassured her. "My father is back in Camelot. And we'll get Merlin to work on the sleeping drought some."

Morgana squeezed his hand gratefully. "I thought I might go to Dr. Wilson for help," she said, a trifle hesitantly. Wilson was an entirely different mess that Arthur knew nothing about. While he knew that they had gone to the dance while cursed, he didn't know how the night had played out. Thank goodness. He'd never let her hear the end of it. "Merlin has his talents, but he is not a healer." Not that any of Gaius' potions had been very helpful; she was actually surprised at how effective Merlin's potions had been. But she still wasn't quite comfortable having him experiment, remembering how his treatment of Mordred's wound went.

"As long as you see someone," Arthur said with a nod. He really was concerned for Morgana, he didn't like the idea of her not being able to sleep or being so troubled by nightmares when she did.

"If you want me to stay here with you while you try and sleep I will," he told her. Actually, he was going to whether she asked him to or not, but he thought he should at least let her pretend she had a choice just this once.

Morgana immediately shook her head. She was tired -- she was always tired after she dreamed -- but she didn't dare try sleeping again, for fear of finding Uther there once more. She pushed herself up. "No, thank you," she said, wrapping her robe more tightly around her. "I'm awake now. I should dress."

"Alright but I'm going to leave the room while you get dressed," he said, leveling a half serious gaze at her. If she was going to be up and around and not frightened it would be weird to be as... sympathetic as he was being to her. Not that he didn't still feel that way towards her but after treating each other a certain way for so long it would seem odd to treat each other otherwise.

The idea of Arthur leaving gave her pause. Of course he had to leave; she could hardly undress with him in the room. But being alone... She squashed that thought.

"Obviously," she said, managing a passing imitation of her usual attitude. "It would be hardly appropriate for you to stay." At that point, courage fled her, and she added quietly: "You'll be at the door, won't you?"

"I may go to the kitchen to get you something to drink," he said, reaching down to pick up his sword. "But I promise other than that I'll be right outside the door."

The fact that Morgana was being so open about wanting him close really bothered Arthur. Was she really so afraid of Uther or was it just that she was afraid of having another nightmare?

Morgana didn't like the thought of him being as far as the kitchen, but she couldn't admit to that. She looked pathetic and needy enough as is. It had only been a dream; a dream couldn't hurt her. The throbbing pain where his hand had grabbed her throat was simply a figment of her imagination.

"Thank you," she said.

Arthur squeezed Morgana's hand one more time before he left the room and shut the door behind him. He immediately went to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. He was prepared to rush back into her room at a moment's notice if she started screaming again though.

Morgana changed quickly, for once putting absolutely no thought into what she would wear. She just wanted to be with people again as soon as possible. She finished pulling on her dress and turned around --

And there he was again. He didn't say a word this time; only looked at her with those same angry, betrayed eyes. She bit back another scream and hurried out of the room.

Arthur was just coming back to the door when Morgana rushed out of it, almost bumping into him. With his free hand he reached out and placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm right here," Arthur said, reaching out to hand her the cup of water. "There's no strangers here, you're perfectly safe."

Strangers weren't what frightened her, but Morgana did not say as much. It had all been in her mind. If she didn't talk or think about it, if she just pretended that nothing was there, hopefully the ghost would go away and leave her in peace. Not that Uther had ever been so accommodating, even in life. If he was in good humor, perhaps, but who would be in good humor after being murdered?

Murdered. Morgana shivered and took the cup of water from Arthur's hand. "Thank you," she said, moving so that Arthur stood between her and the door.

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