Who: Sharon ‘Kate’ Carter & Merline When: April 7th, After meeting with Albus Where: The Infirmary What: Merlin goes to see the medi-witch, as promised. Rating/Warnings: Low Status: Complete
As promised, Merlin had gone straight to the infirmary after leaving Albus’ company. The lad had said that the witches there could help his heart with a potion. A potion! Imagine. He stepped through the double doors quietly, allowing them to swing closed behind him, and slow, but confident steps took him deeper in. He’d spent time here as a boy far too often, though it was much smaller in those days. They had since expanded. Idly, he wondered why.
“Excuse me,” he would say to the first young blonde woman he saw. “Pardon, but I was told to come here, to see a medi-witch.” He was dressed rather regally, looking like it could have stepped out of a story book.. all straight lines, trim form, and perfect posture. He had a handsome face, but he wasn’t the traditional sort of manly handsome, rather there was something more old-fashioned about his good looks.
He looked rather out of place here.
-
Sharon was in the infirmary. She'd delivered a phone to Mister Sirius Black, and was spending the rest of the day relaxing. She was on duty, but during the Spring Break there wasn't a whole lot going on in the Infirmary. Some quidditch injuries, some headaches, some bandaids. Really, it wasn't much. She wished she didn't have to be in here today. It was such a beautiful day outside. She was sitting by the window, staring out over the grounds, thinking about Remy, when...
At the sound of the voice, Sharon jumped up from her chair and moved over to greet the man who'd come in. "You've come to the right place, then." She put on her Kate smile. "How can I help you?"
-
Her Kate smile won a curious tilt of his head as he picked it out as being.. off. Hm. The oddness was ignored in favor of him returning that smile and looking down at himself, then back up at her.
“I was directed here by a friend, who told me that you may be able to assist me with something. My heart often beats too quickly, at an uneven pace. And young Albus has told me perhaps something more efficient than leeches may be available now.” Well, that was more exciting than band-aids, at least.
-
Sharon raised both eyebrows, that smile slipping just slightly from her features at the mention of leeches. Leeches? What the fuck? She nodded. "We have far more appropriate medicines now-a-days than leeches. I don't think they've been used for a hundred years." Maybe more. Probably more.
She motioned for him to follow her in and sit on a bed. "May I listen to your heart?" She asked, drawing out her wand. It was average length, slightly slim, flexible. It was a very elegant thing. "I can't give you a proper diagnosis like a Healer could, but I can help you with something in the mean time. You really should go to St. Mungo's for a more permanent fix."
-
“I’m not quite certain a hospital is my best course of action.” Not with the odd way Albus had told him that he was well known for more than his apparation spell.
Following her with slow steps, Merlin would sit on the bed as instructed and fold his hands into his lap. “Yes, of course.” Listen to his heart all you like, nurse. It would sound fine for the moment, a steady, sure beat. She would listen for as long as she pleased, but just before she was ready to move away, it would give a double-thump, a skip, then relax again into a steady rhythm. Your new patient, Nurse, had a heart condition that certainly needed some looking after. “At times, I feel faint.” That was the understatement of the year.
-
Sharon fiddled with her wand, amplifying the sound of his heartbeat. It sounded fine at first, normal, but then the moment she went to cancel the spell there was a funny beat. She frowned a bit, and performed the spell again. The same thing happened. Another frown.
She brought her ear to one end of the wand, and placed the opposite tip against his chest. Listening.
"I..." She was completely out of her league here. Kate may have had some idea what to do, but Sharon was at a complete loss. She pulled back and stood up straight, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought.
"Well, I have a potion that is supposed to help with irregular heartbeats. We could try that?" The good news was that this was a safe one. Wouldn't cause any damage to a healthy person.
-
And this was what happened, Agent, when you pretended to be a proper nurse.
Blue eyes focused on her and her new patient would smile, nodding only once in understanding. “I will do as you suggest. You are the expert.” He wouldn’t mention that she didn’t look very confident about this. He didn’t think she’d hurt him if she was wrong.
He hoped.
-
Sharon figured she could probably figure something out if she had a night and all those textbooks that she kept on the shelves in her bedroom. She turned away from the man, moving over to the store cupboard to collect the potion. It was the sort of thing that they had on hand just in case of heart attacks or whatever, safe enough for a school, potent enough to keep an irregularly beating heart beating regularly.
She collected the potion, then collected the clipboard with admission paperwork, and came back over to the man. "I'll need your name and... well, this info." She said, holding out the clipboard to him. Standard stuff. She couldn't just start giving potions to folks she didn't know from Adam.
-
Clipboard held out, he would stare at the pen for a second, then slowly take it and turn it over in his hand. Putting the tip to the paper, he’d press and then a smile came across his face. Amazing. Look at that.
Neat script would appear on the paper as he moved his hand along it. Merle. E. Lynn. Birthdate? 10/10/1010 -- that should have been his parents first clue there would be something remarkable about this boy. Height? Weight? Condition complained of? All easy. He was passing the form back over.
His name looked normal. Read it out loud, Sharon, and you’d make the same revelation a few of the students had puzzled out.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
-
"Thank you..." Sharon read it in her head. Merle. E. Lynn. Three separate words she didn't blend together. "Merle." She nodded once, glancing over the form, then set it aside and held out a small cup of the potion. It was clear and sweet, though it would leave a slightly tiny aftertaste. She had to wait and stand there while he took it, had to watch him swallow it down. Part of the job.
She capped the potion bottle. "...you're new around here, aren't you?"
-
He would drink it without hesitation, licking his lips when it was over and he considered the taste. But then he extended the little cup back over to her. “I am, indeed. Professor Holmes was good enough to show my friend and myself in. He also found a set of chambers for me.” Chambers.
“I have heard your school has become a hub for erratic time travel.” And he meant to help. After all, it was the least he could do before returning home.
-
"It's not exactly my school. I'm from the States." It didn't even occur to Sharon that he might not know what that meant. She hadn't heard of any displaced students or faculty who'd come from the distant past, so she sort of took for granted that everyone knew what the United States were. Was.
"Ah, so you met Sherlock did you? He's a ray of sunshine." Watch that sarcasm, Sharon. Kate wouldn't be so glib. "I mean, it was very nice of him to show you around. I'm finding the faculty quarters to be quite pleasant. I love my bed." ...that part was actually true. It was a very comfortable bed.
-
“States?” He asked, tone curious. The world was flat according to the people in his time, Sharon. Not only was the world flat, but the sun revolved around them, not the other way around. There was little beyond England and Italy.
Well, nothing civilized, anyway.
“He was rather accommodating.” If there had been anything other than the bit of sarcasm from the tall, thin man, it had been lost on Merlin. Still, he allowed her to take his pulse again and look him over for any ill effects from the potion while sitting silently. He only observed her.
And once she noticed him watching her and inevitably looked up with a smile?
Merlin would offer a soft, warm smile in return. “Tell me,” he began after a second, “Who are you, really, and why is it that you’re pretending to be Miss Collins?”
Wait.
What?
-
Indeed, there was the inevitable moment when she looked up, put on her Kate smile, and then was caught completely off guard with a question. Her smile faded just a bit into concern, without giving away more than a split second that she was surprised by the question.
"What do you mean?" She asked. "I'm Kate Collins." That part would ring true. She wasn't pretending to be someone named Kate Collins. Kate Collins didn't exist, therefore she couldn't pretend to be Kate Collins.
-
The look on his face should have been enough to tell her that he knew and that no amount of her acting was going to change his mind. Merlin simply stared right through her, though a warm little smile played at his lips.
He, of course, knew nothing about fake identities, but knew that this woman wasn’t who she claimed to be. It was painfully obvious to him.
“You are a very talented liar, young lady, the best lies are rooted in truth.” His calm assertion. “But your name is not Kate Collins.” When she had introduced himself, he’d known it. “You don’t say it with the practice of someone who has for twenty-plus years.” His eyes were roaming over her face, taking in the planes of her cheeks and the corners of her mouth. “The letter ‘K’ makes a very distinct sound, one that requires an equally distinct form from your mouth to make it.”
He lifted a hand, reaching towards her face but not touching--Sorry, Sharon, he had no sense of personal space--to indicate the edges of her lips. “You’ve no lines here. You have not been saying this name your entire life.” His hand fell away. “The way you carry yourself, moving slower than you should, it causes your muscles to tense in such a way-- it’s not healthy, young lady. And the fact that your knees seem to want to spread slightly as you sit indicates that you are unused to the skirts of a nurses uniform.” Dreadful man, this one. He had been here five minutes and was picking apart this cover that took a year to painstakingly build. “Your fingers are far too calloused, in addition, and in the wrong places for a woman who should be mixing potions as often as a nurse.” Good Lord, make him stop, Sharon. “Your body betrays a strength you clearly wish to remain hidden, and you line up your medications from left to right on the shelf..” He made a vague gesture to the shelf behind him, which he had scarce glanced at, “According to their common names, when medical teachings enforce a medical name ranking.” His hands fell back into his lap.
“And you faltered when I call you on it.” Blue eyes hadn’t left hers.
Well.
-
Sharon paused for a moment. She glanced over at the medicine cabinet, then to the front door. The Infirmary was large, and empty. Perhaps not as comfortable as her office would have been for this sort of conversation, but it would have to do. She drew her wand and flicked it. The door closed. The windows closed.
She stood up straight and took a deep breath.
"Who are you?"
-
“If I remember correctly, I had asked you the same question previously. My name is on your sheet of parchment there.. I would appreciate a name in return.” A pause, then: “You can count on my discretion, I give you my word.” Still, his gaze hadn’t left hers, and with the way she’d stood up so suddenly and drawn her wand?
He hadn’t flinched, hadn’t blinked, hadn’t made any motion to reach for his own wand. Either he had no self-preservation at all, or he simply wasn’t scared of her.
-
Sharon wasn't that scary. Especially not when she looked so much like Kate. She was trained to be unintimidating. She wasn't trying to cause alarm.
"Merle E Lynn." Sharon said without having to glance back down at the paper. But now that she'd said the whole name aloud... and put it together with the date... She paused, as the gears clicked into place.
It couldn't be. It couldn't. Could it?
Her body, which had been stiff a moment before, started to unflex. To relax a bit.
"Merlin." She said, one eyebrow raised. "Are you Merlin? Of King Arthur's Court?"
-
“Young Albus told me that the people here would know my name.. it’s still hard to grasp that they do. Yes, that is my name, and Arthur is a very good friend of mine.” Though he certainly wasn’t a part of his Court. No, he was just a wizard who resided in a structure not far from the King’s great castle. “And you are..?” He slowly lifted his eyebrows as if to indicate he was waiting.
-
"Oh, my God." Sharon said, her face paling a bit. Her lips fell out of the Kate smile, and she stared. She stared. It was going to take her a moment to realize that this was actually Merlin. The Merlin of legend. Bumped forward in time a thousand years.
"I'm..." She couldn't lie to Merlin. Then again. She had to be careful. He could have been undercover, too. Pretending to be who he was. On some kind of a potion to hide his appearance or his... whatever. She would have to play this very carefully.
"I'm here on Ministry business." She explained. Wow, that felt so strange to say out loud. "Kate Collins is a persona developed by my superiors for a specific purpose."
And now she'd just fucked it all up.
-
“You don’t wish to tell me.” It wasn’t a question, but an observation. “Very well, you’re not required to. You have no reason to trust nor believe me, after all.” Pushing slowly to his feet, he would give her a warm smile and clasp his hands behind his back. “It was so very good to meet you, Miss. And thank you for your assistance.” He was keenly aware that he’d made her uncomfortable.
He did that a lot.
-
Shit. Now Sharon had insulted Merlin. Merle Fucking Lynn. This was definitely not in her debriefings. This was not part of the plan. She hadn't been prepared for something like this.
"It's not that I don't want to, I just... If I tell you," she responded, taking a step back as he stood, "it would put both of our lives in danger." He knew too much already. They could both be in grave danger.
...that was a silly thought, wasn't it? Merlin in danger.
-
“No, please, young miss.. you don’t need to explain yourself to me. It was not my place to say anything at all.” A hand came up to rest over his heart, as if to prove he was being earnest about the entire thing. “But should you ever wish to tell me, I can promise you, you will not be placing me in any danger.” He couldn’t guarantee her safety, though. Of course he couldn’t.
-
Sharon nodded. “Please… keep this between us.” She said, her voice taking on a tone of pleading. Sharon was turning into something she definitely wasn’t, and it was driving her crazy. Begging people for favors, giving away her cover. This wasn’t her. She was better than this--a better soldier than this.
“And… come back if you feel you need more help with your heart.”
-
“Of course.” His hands opened out in front of him slightly, a gesture that came with a little, warm smile. “Your secret is safe with me.” Everyone’s secrets were safe with him. Merlin was the soul of discretion.
“Thank you, miss.” He would come back if needed. But for now? He would calmly make his way from the infirmary, feeling a bit better about not having been gnawed on by leeches.