Who: Jane and Merlin When: 14th October Where: Stark canteen What: Wedding assistance Rating/Warning: Low/None Status: Complete
Jane, Merlin had discovered, was more than just a science genius. She was a google genius too. And very creative. She had sent him so many ideas that it had taken him ages to decide which ones to use and now he had arranged to meet her for lunch to go over some of those ideas and ask for her help in arranging some of them.
He was in the corner of Stark canteen with things spread out around him as he waited for her to arrive.
Jane had been having a lazy evening at home when she’d found all of the photos she’d sent to Merlin. Having just found out that Darcy had gotten married without telling her, she’d been sat on the couch with trashy tv on, a bowl of cookie dough ice cream and a glass of wine. She’d stumbled on the first image by accident really and then one thing had led to another and she had found herself diving headlong into finding stuff for Merlin and Audrey’s wedding.
Arriving at the canteen, she spotted Merlin in the corner with the table covered with pictures. Smiling in amusement, she made her way over to him, standing next to him and asking, “Can I get you another table, sir?”
Merlin looked up and grinned when he saw Jane, “Sorry” he said, scrambling to pull the papers into more orderly piles. “That’s kind of how my brain probably looks right now” he told her.
"That's ok," Jane smiled at him, watching him as he scrambled with the papers. "That:s what my brain looks like most of the time too," she said. "You want a coffee?" she thumbed at the counter.
That received a chuckle, “Really? I’m in good company then” he smiled then nodded, “That would be great, thanks. I’ll get this stuff into some kind of order”
"Ok," Jane headed off to the counter and grabbed them two straight black coffees before returning to Merlin's table. "So have you got a system going on here then?"
“Hmm sort of” Merlin hedged, “Better than it was before. To begin with it was ‘stuff I like’ ‘stuff I kind of like’ ‘stuff that’s okay’ and ‘no’” he told her, “But it’s a bit more than that now. This pile...” he put his hand on is, “...is stuff I want but need to work out how and where I get it from”
"Right, so thats the sourcing pile," Jane nodded at the pile. "What else have you got?"
“Yep” Merlin nodded, “Well the rest isn’t really sorted yet, they’re like back-ups in case we can’t source what I want to. Oh and this pile is what I already have booked” he added, placing his hand down on the smallest pile.
“Ok,” Jane sat down opposite him and put their coffees down on the table. “So, where do you want to start?”
“Well actually I wondered if I could give you some of the ones to source?” Merlin asked, “Only if you have time, I wouldn’t want to take you away from your work” he added hurriedly.
“I’ve always got time for my friends,” Jane smiled at him, besides, it would keep her mind off Darcy. “Gimmie gimmie!” she grinned, indicating with her hands that she wanted some of the stack.
Merlin laughed, “I think you’re an angel, sent by whatever is out there to help me not completely fail at this wedding” he told her as he handed over some of the pile.
“You won’t fail at this wedding, I’ll make sure of it,” Jane told him as she took the papers. “Trust me, I’m a doctor,” she paused as she lifted her coffee to her lips. “Well, almost,” she winked at him before taking a sip.
“Thank you Jane” Merlin said honestly, before chuckling, “Close enough for me” he told her cheerfully, “So I think the priorities are the decorations? I have the venue, music and catering sorted”
"Excellent," Jane nodded. "So I guess I should ask, where is it and how many," she smiled at him.
“Westminster Manor House” he told her, “They’ve agreed to set everything up as long as we tell them exactly what we want and provide everything they need. It can hold 100 guests so that’s kind of our limit, but that’s fine. I don’t want it to be so massive that Audrey and I get lost amongst everybody”
“Oooo, a Manor House, how very English,” Jane tried to imitate an English accent as she picked up her coffee for another sip. “So basically, get decorations, deliver to venue, let chaos ensue, right?” she joked.
“Well I am English and Audrey is in her dreams so I figured it would be fun” Merlin grinned, “Basically yeah. At the end of the day if it all goes horrendously wrong, I can fix it with...” he waved his hand over the piles of paper and they promptly stacked themselves in neater piles, “...that but if I can do it without cheating that would be great”
Jane covered her mouth with her hand as she tried not to spit her coffee out. She stared at the piles with wide eyes before raising them to Merlin’s in shock. She swallowed heavily and put her coffee down. “Oh my god! You’ve got…” She lowered her voice and leant forward over the table. “Magic?” she whispered excitedly.
“Have I not shown you that before?” he asked, realising he may not have. “Oh umm oops?” he offered with a smile, “Surprise” and just because he could and because he was Merlin he magicked her a flower and held it out to her.
Jane grinned and looked at him coyly as she took the flower from him. “No, you’ve never told me, you sly dog,” she smiled and gently bopped him on the head with the flower. “So how long have you been...’cheating’?” she asked with a wink, referring to the piles he’d performed magic on.
"Since I started dreaming" Merlin admitted, "I was cooking with Audrey, before we were dating and I froze this dish in midair when I knocked it off the side" he explained, "My abilities have been getting stronger each time I dream"
“That’s pretty cool, wish my dreams did something like that,” Jane lamented. “I just get woken up in the middle of the night by Norse gods and equations,” she grumbled, mostly overdramatically, since she didn’t mind getting new ideas about equations and her work, but when it came to well-built, blonde hunks who had pretty much broken her heart, she’d rather not dream about that anymore.
“I didn’t expect it but it does come in pretty handy” Merlin admitted, “Especially for the jobs you really don’t want or like doing” he grinned before looking at Jane sadly, “I’m sorry yours aren’t as fun. But equations are good right?”
“Oh equations are great, but not always when they wake you up at 3am,” Jane joked. “Anyway, enough of that, what else can I do to help?”
“Good point” Merlin accepted, “Honestly? I think just knowing you’re looking into that lot is great” he told her, “And you know being on email for when I have freak out’s and Gwen’s exasperated with me” he grinned.
Jane chuckled at that, imagining Gwen huffing in exasperation at him as he started to panic over something. “Not to worry, I may not have superpowers, but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” she told him with a confident smile. “I’ll be on email, text and phone call duty if you ever need it.”
“Thanks Jane” he told her with a relieved look, “I’m lucky to have you both to stop me losing it completely” he sighed, “Guess we better be heading back up, could you email me when you have anything?” he requested, “And then I can update my spreadsheet”
“Aww, you have a spreadsheet? That’s so sweet,” Jane teased from behind her coffee, albeit she thought it was a good idea.
“Of course I do” Merlin told her, “There’s no way I could keep everything in my head, and a notepad wouldn’t work in case Audrey found it” It made sense to him and it was the way he worked. Merlin had a lot of lists.
“Fair enough,” Jane shrugged with a grin as she finished off her coffee. “Ok, I gotta run, get started on these,” she held up the pile of papers. “I’ll email you when I’ve made some progress,” she told him.
“You’re a star Jane” Merlin told her happily, “Seriously. Thank you” he said before she rushed off. Merlin really had gotten lucky with his friends. Thank goodness.