BACKSTORY FOR THAT HOLLYWOOD AU
HERE, copperiisulfate ,I FINALLY DID THIS THING.
It is not the best thing ever, and it's less about Morgana than I intended, and it took me forever and a half, but here.
Every Plan is a Tiny Prayer
PG for mild language, off screen murder
Arthur/Gwen, implied Morgana/Morgause
summary: he died alone like he deserved
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He knows he doesn't deserve to die like this, in the comfort of the best homecare money could buy. The nurse checked on him every hour, administered his medication, and worked as his assistant, making calls for him, arranging meetings with his lawyer to finish writing his will, all of that.
Pretty much all the things Gaius had been in charge of before his death a year ago. Needless to say, Uther hated his new assistant. But he was effective, and Uther was dying anyway.
Arthur came by twice a week to see him, despite the hour drive across town.
There was no one else who came by anymore. There was no one left.
It occurred to him that it could all die with him, all the lies, all the secrets.
But this thought, more than the constant headaches, more than the body pains, more than being bed ridden, pained him.
He had to tell.
And there was no one TO tell, except for his son, who most deserved to know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur is trustworthy, will keep to his word, Uther knows that. So he opens by extracting promises.
"Arthur," he says, and Arthur looks up from where he's been sitting and reading across the room. Arthur's been forbidden by the doctors to tell Uther anything about the business--too stressful, they said. There is nothing else to talk about that isn't even more stressful. So Arthur reads. (Uther does not realize that it is pathetic he has nothing to say to his son.)
But he has something to say now. The doctors have given him another two weeks to live. There's not much to do with two weeks, and at any time he could have another stroke. So it's time.
"Arthur," he says again, "I must tell you something. But before I do, I want you to promise me..."
"Promise what, Father?"
"That you'll listen. Listen until I finish."
Arthur puts his book down, stares at his father for a long moment before he finally says, "If I think you're in danger of hurting your--"
but Uther cuts him off, snaps, "Arthur, this is important. Please." It's grit out. Uther Pendragon does not say Please, and Arthur knows this. His pauses, and he replies,
"Fine. Okay. I'll listen."
So Uther begins to explain.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twenty four years ago, this is what happened.
Ygraine had always bled easily and too much. The simple solution was for her to not get cut up much.
It turned out she had another condition, too, causing the opposite--unwanted blood clotting in her veins. It lead to the two miscarriages she'd had.
The typical solution to hypercoagulability was, of course, blood thinners, which would help fend off another miscarriage. They'd also exacerbate the other issue.
But she's already pregnant again, and Uther thinks, what if this is our last chance?
She's already pregnant again, and Uther needs a child.
One that's Ygraine's.
Because what happened with Vivienne le Faye....that was dirty. Such a child could not take his empire.
(besides, it was never said Uther wasn't prejudice. He wanted a son.)
They seek a second opinion.
Her name is Nimueh.
Her name is Nimueh, and she warns Uther, deleting the files chronicling Ygraine's secondary condition could be very, very bad.
She warns Uther, Ygraine's chances of severe hemorrhaging are high.
Uther does not listen, and seven months later his wife bleeds out in a hospital bed.
But he finally has a son.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three years ago the file copies Morgause had turned up had been authentic. The only useful thing Arthur's fool of PA ever did besides saving his life from that malfunctioning automated chandelier was telling him the files were forgeries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Uther finishes his story, Arthur walks into the hallway without saying a word, shutting the door behind him.
Uther is crying.
He deserves much more pain than this.
Arthur considers, decides.
The obituary the next day will say Uther passed away from a blood clot.
There's nothing about the personal nurse that was nowhere to be found or the medication doses that weren't quite right.
This is all because Arthur has more money than he really ever knew what to do with, and killing his father seems like a good a thing as any.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing Arthur does when he gets back to his apartment is take a shot.
Then he finds Gwen and maybe yells at her a bit (she understands by now that this, him yelling at her, means there is something very, very wrong, so she just tries to calm him) about idiot fathers and Morgana until Gwen tells him,
"Alright, yes, I still have her number," and hands it over.
THEN he calls Morgana, and he opens after her wary, "hello?" (no one else can say hello like that, it must be her,) with an enraged,
"You were right, Morgana, you were right all along about him. Tell your goddamned girlfriend I believe her, shit, what she told me three years ago was true, that fuck, that fuck killed my mother,"
and then there's just Morgana's laughter, cold and sudden, and "Arthur, dear, I knew you'd come around. Did that fool of an assistant finally tell you?"
"NO. No, that asshole didn't tell me a goddamned--" and here Arthur breaks and really starts crying, finally just chokes out, "I killed him, Morgana, like he deserved, he died alone like he fucking deserved--" and Gwen takes the phone from him and has walks into another room for a minute, leaving him crying on the floor to have a hushed conversation.
When she comes back in without the phone, she gathers him up and holds him, rocks him, murmers, "It's okay, Arthur, my love, it's okay now, my dear" until he finally stutters out, "Gwen, Gwen, you heard what I said, didn't you, don't tell, you won't tell, will you? You--"
"Arthur," she stops him, "he killed my father, remember," she says, because those years ago he sent her father to jail for a crime he didn't commit after finding computer files about Camelot Productions on a flash drive in his house. Her father, so recently ill before that, did not fair well in a prison cell.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that, Arthur does not talk to Merlin for a good few weeks because of his lies, until he shows up on Arthur's doorstep and confesses not only to having computer files on everything to happen since he started work for the company, but to magic. Magic wasn't even real.
So then he knew, and he talked to Morgana again (found out she was magic too, and Morgause) and spent a good deal of time talking to Morgana instead of Merlin because even if she had tried to take over his company a little bit and pretended to be working for his father when really she'd been working for Cendred, Inc., she'd never lied quite like Merlin had.
Besides, Merlin had lied to Morgana, too, those years ago.
And of course they bonded over mutual extreme hatred of their father (even if Arthur had some pretty major guilt issues and maybe stopped taking care of the company for several months. It was fine, Lance was in town and was able to do most of it with help from Merlin and the board of directors.)
He and Morgana eventually agreed to a merger, and so they ended up with their joint company under the name Albion Productions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N
SO. How magic works: it's like this. Magic is like it always was, except casting giant fireballs cannot be called practical in the modern age, so a majority of magic users (who can find each other through websites that normal people assume are run by crazy people) use technology instead. Often, along with magic comes an instinctive understanding of technology. They are natural hackers. Merlin could pretty much delete the internet if it occurred to him to do so.
THEREFORE, most of the big magic battles that happened in the series were, in this AU, computer-fights, sort of. A shifting balance of security and viruses. I don't actually know much about viruses and stuff, but if more about it comes up, I'll look.
I've worked on this forever so now I know like, everything that ever happened in series as it happened in AU verse, and I've got all these word documents of incomplete Morgana tidbits that maybe someday I'll fix right, but I said this'd be up today, so fuck all, right?
Cruddy, unbetaed, but HERE. So we can GET ON WITH THIS. Because I FINALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
Title from Death Cab.
It is not the best thing ever, and it's less about Morgana than I intended, and it took me forever and a half, but here.
Every Plan is a Tiny Prayer
PG for mild language, off screen murder
Arthur/Gwen, implied Morgana/Morgause
summary: he died alone like he deserved
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He knows he doesn't deserve to die like this, in the comfort of the best homecare money could buy. The nurse checked on him every hour, administered his medication, and worked as his assistant, making calls for him, arranging meetings with his lawyer to finish writing his will, all of that.
Pretty much all the things Gaius had been in charge of before his death a year ago. Needless to say, Uther hated his new assistant. But he was effective, and Uther was dying anyway.
Arthur came by twice a week to see him, despite the hour drive across town.
There was no one else who came by anymore. There was no one left.
It occurred to him that it could all die with him, all the lies, all the secrets.
But this thought, more than the constant headaches, more than the body pains, more than being bed ridden, pained him.
He had to tell.
And there was no one TO tell, except for his son, who most deserved to know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur is trustworthy, will keep to his word, Uther knows that. So he opens by extracting promises.
"Arthur," he says, and Arthur looks up from where he's been sitting and reading across the room. Arthur's been forbidden by the doctors to tell Uther anything about the business--too stressful, they said. There is nothing else to talk about that isn't even more stressful. So Arthur reads. (Uther does not realize that it is pathetic he has nothing to say to his son.)
But he has something to say now. The doctors have given him another two weeks to live. There's not much to do with two weeks, and at any time he could have another stroke. So it's time.
"Arthur," he says again, "I must tell you something. But before I do, I want you to promise me..."
"Promise what, Father?"
"That you'll listen. Listen until I finish."
Arthur puts his book down, stares at his father for a long moment before he finally says, "If I think you're in danger of hurting your--"
but Uther cuts him off, snaps, "Arthur, this is important. Please." It's grit out. Uther Pendragon does not say Please, and Arthur knows this. His pauses, and he replies,
"Fine. Okay. I'll listen."
So Uther begins to explain.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twenty four years ago, this is what happened.
Ygraine had always bled easily and too much. The simple solution was for her to not get cut up much.
It turned out she had another condition, too, causing the opposite--unwanted blood clotting in her veins. It lead to the two miscarriages she'd had.
The typical solution to hypercoagulability was, of course, blood thinners, which would help fend off another miscarriage. They'd also exacerbate the other issue.
But she's already pregnant again, and Uther thinks, what if this is our last chance?
She's already pregnant again, and Uther needs a child.
One that's Ygraine's.
Because what happened with Vivienne le Faye....that was dirty. Such a child could not take his empire.
(besides, it was never said Uther wasn't prejudice. He wanted a son.)
They seek a second opinion.
Her name is Nimueh.
Her name is Nimueh, and she warns Uther, deleting the files chronicling Ygraine's secondary condition could be very, very bad.
She warns Uther, Ygraine's chances of severe hemorrhaging are high.
Uther does not listen, and seven months later his wife bleeds out in a hospital bed.
But he finally has a son.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three years ago the file copies Morgause had turned up had been authentic. The only useful thing Arthur's fool of PA ever did besides saving his life from that malfunctioning automated chandelier was telling him the files were forgeries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Uther finishes his story, Arthur walks into the hallway without saying a word, shutting the door behind him.
Uther is crying.
He deserves much more pain than this.
Arthur considers, decides.
The obituary the next day will say Uther passed away from a blood clot.
There's nothing about the personal nurse that was nowhere to be found or the medication doses that weren't quite right.
This is all because Arthur has more money than he really ever knew what to do with, and killing his father seems like a good a thing as any.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing Arthur does when he gets back to his apartment is take a shot.
Then he finds Gwen and maybe yells at her a bit (she understands by now that this, him yelling at her, means there is something very, very wrong, so she just tries to calm him) about idiot fathers and Morgana until Gwen tells him,
"Alright, yes, I still have her number," and hands it over.
THEN he calls Morgana, and he opens after her wary, "hello?" (no one else can say hello like that, it must be her,) with an enraged,
"You were right, Morgana, you were right all along about him. Tell your goddamned girlfriend I believe her, shit, what she told me three years ago was true, that fuck, that fuck killed my mother,"
and then there's just Morgana's laughter, cold and sudden, and "Arthur, dear, I knew you'd come around. Did that fool of an assistant finally tell you?"
"NO. No, that asshole didn't tell me a goddamned--" and here Arthur breaks and really starts crying, finally just chokes out, "I killed him, Morgana, like he deserved, he died alone like he fucking deserved--" and Gwen takes the phone from him and has walks into another room for a minute, leaving him crying on the floor to have a hushed conversation.
When she comes back in without the phone, she gathers him up and holds him, rocks him, murmers, "It's okay, Arthur, my love, it's okay now, my dear" until he finally stutters out, "Gwen, Gwen, you heard what I said, didn't you, don't tell, you won't tell, will you? You--"
"Arthur," she stops him, "he killed my father, remember," she says, because those years ago he sent her father to jail for a crime he didn't commit after finding computer files about Camelot Productions on a flash drive in his house. Her father, so recently ill before that, did not fair well in a prison cell.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that, Arthur does not talk to Merlin for a good few weeks because of his lies, until he shows up on Arthur's doorstep and confesses not only to having computer files on everything to happen since he started work for the company, but to magic. Magic wasn't even real.
So then he knew, and he talked to Morgana again (found out she was magic too, and Morgause) and spent a good deal of time talking to Morgana instead of Merlin because even if she had tried to take over his company a little bit and pretended to be working for his father when really she'd been working for Cendred, Inc., she'd never lied quite like Merlin had.
Besides, Merlin had lied to Morgana, too, those years ago.
And of course they bonded over mutual extreme hatred of their father (even if Arthur had some pretty major guilt issues and maybe stopped taking care of the company for several months. It was fine, Lance was in town and was able to do most of it with help from Merlin and the board of directors.)
He and Morgana eventually agreed to a merger, and so they ended up with their joint company under the name Albion Productions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N
SO. How magic works: it's like this. Magic is like it always was, except casting giant fireballs cannot be called practical in the modern age, so a majority of magic users (who can find each other through websites that normal people assume are run by crazy people) use technology instead. Often, along with magic comes an instinctive understanding of technology. They are natural hackers. Merlin could pretty much delete the internet if it occurred to him to do so.
THEREFORE, most of the big magic battles that happened in the series were, in this AU, computer-fights, sort of. A shifting balance of security and viruses. I don't actually know much about viruses and stuff, but if more about it comes up, I'll look.
I've worked on this forever so now I know like, everything that ever happened in series as it happened in AU verse, and I've got all these word documents of incomplete Morgana tidbits that maybe someday I'll fix right, but I said this'd be up today, so fuck all, right?
Cruddy, unbetaed, but HERE. So we can GET ON WITH THIS. Because I FINALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.
Title from Death Cab.