Groundwork

Groundwork is the eighth part of the Loaded March series. It was uploaded to Archive of Our Own on December 24, 2011. It consists of 75,839 words.
Read it here.
==Summary==
Merlin's secret is no longer a secret and Excalibur struggles with the knowledge that they had a sorcerer among them all along. But the mission against the NWO won't wait, and Merlin and Arthur must soldier on.
==Plot==
Merlin binds Arthur and himself together through their tattoos.
AND
Bathroom sex.
Really fucking hot bathroom sex.
ooOOoo
Groundwork begins just where First Contact left off: with the team pointing their guns at Merlin. The team quickly realize that they need to clean up the area and get back inside. Merlin is a bit catatonic about what is going on around him. His worst fears have come true. He's built up his friendship with his team, and they are now rejecting him because of his magic.
Once they are all back in London, the team all congregate at Leon's house to bitch about Merlin, his magic, and the fact that Arthur knew about it and didn't tell the team. They are also trying to make sense of the fact that Merlin has magic, but still almost died in Algiers, and they review all of the times they think that Merlin must have helped the team out. Arthur walks in on this bitch fest right when Bohrs makes a comment about killing Merlin. Arthur is not pleased, expecially when Bohrs was supposed to be at Arthur's house watching out for Merlin.
The team goes on to verbally attack Arthur. Arthur takes the blame, saying he was trying to protect Merlin, and that they wanted to be clear of the Directory before notifying the team of Merlin's magic. Perceival shares what he remembers about that night in Paris after Merlin outed himself and Arthur adds to it. The team starts to doubt Merlin's loyalty to the team - thinking that maybe he'd bee NWO the whole time. Arthur tells the team that they need to talk to Merlin about this.
At Arthur's place, Merlin is nowhere in sight - just Merlin's not eaten breakfast. Bohrs makes a stupid comment and Arthur goes Captain on him. Arthur heads upstairs, hoping to find Merlin. Merlin is curled up in the corner. His closet is full of empty hangers and his drawers are pulled open and empty as well. Arthur goes to comfort Merlin, and tells him that the team is there.
Merlin goes downstairs and starts to talk about his magic and how he has always been told to 'keep it secret', 'don't let anyone know about your magic, Merlin'.  The team finds out that only Hunith, Balinor, Gaius, and Will know about Merlin's magic and why Merlin doesn't trust The Directory. So, the team talks it all out. Bohrs does punch Merlin though. Arthur is restrained from killing Bohrs. Then the tension is released a bit and they all eat pizza and watch sports and make jokes about Merlin's magic.
After Merlin goes to bed, the team discusses Merlin's magic some more - mostly about how powerful it is. They decide that they need to figure out Merlin's limits, so they know how best to use his talents and how to protect him.
The next morning starts out much more pleasantly for Merlin with a round of lazy morning sex. After, Arthur talks to Merlin about his magical limits. Merlin then tries to get in a round 2, but alas, Arthur will not be distracted.
Lance picks up Gaius and takes him to Arthur's lakehouse. Gaius meets the team and then sees Arthur pleading to a car, which turns out to have a pouting Merlin in it. Arthur takes a moment out of trying to get Merlin out of the car to talk to Gaius about training Merlin. Gaius decides that he likes  Arthur (yay!). Arthur goes back to the car and manages to get Merlin out. 
Merlin is afraid the team is going to look at him like a circus freak. Arthur knows that the team just has to get used to the magic. After Merlin completes the first exercise, the team is a bit in awe. Merlin, after a bit and some help from Arthur, realized that the team is smiling at him and are excited about the possibilties of magic. The rest of the afternoon passes in drills and fun times. Gaius is pleased that Merlin has such good friends and discovers that Merlin is dating his Captain.
Then more team bonding with movie night. Merlin passes out quickly and the team, again, talks about him, but this time the tone is more 'fiercely loyal'.
When Arthur has to go back to work, he makes Merlin promise to text him every half-hour. Merlin is not pleased. Merlin ends up just programming his phone to automatically send a text to Arthur. After Merlin properly wakes up, he programs his phone to at least make Merlin press a button, which will either send a text from a stock pile of messages or will let Merlin acutally type one out.
At work, Arthur talks to Morgana. They discuss Morgause, the woman who tried to kidnap Morgana, and happenings at Pendragon Company, especially the part where there have been thefts from the company.
The problems with the company make Arthur overwork himself. Merlin fixes some of that with sex. Arthur finally gets a chance to properly look at Merlin's tattoo. He is surprised to discover that the dragon is holding Arthur's sword and shield. Arthur's possessiveness is pleased.
Merlin goes through the protective charms that Kathy, Kay's sister made. He tells Kay which ones belong to which team member. Kay shares his story about how he became a part of Arthur's team. Meanwhile, Arthur is meeting with Olaf, and they share information about the NWO, Morgause, the Pendragon thefts, and what happened in Paris.
Merlin is completely immersed in code and programming when Arthur gets back, so when his phone goes off to tell him to send a message to Arthur, he presses the button that'll send a stock message. Arthur finds out and is not pleased, but he has Merlin delete all the stock messages and tells Merlin that they are going out on date. Then Freya calls to invite them to her club. Arthur is a bit sad that they have to postpone their date.
Before they leave for the club, Arthur asks Merlin if he could bind them together through their tattoos. He wants to be able to know Merlin is safe. Arthur has barely finished asking before Merlin's magic reaches out towards Arthur, binding them together.
They go out to eat with Gwaine and Perceival before going to the Pentragram, Freya's club. At the club, Freya begins to distrust Arthur, mostly because of Merlin's black eye curtesy of Bohrs. Merlin and Arthur meet Bryn. Their is male posturing and power plays between Arthur and Bryn. Merlin and Freya head to get a drink. Arthur intimidates Bryn. Merlin flirts with a stranger, but then the creepy stranger gets a bit to handsy. Arthur, always waching goes to bite the guy's head off. Gwaine intercepts a bit, but Arthur still drags Merlin away.
Now, do you remember the part where we said 'really fucking hot bathroom sex'? Well, this is it.
Because of Arthur's possesiveness, Bryn sees a weakness in Arthur. He recognizes it, and knows he can try to control that. Arthur kind of gets recruited into the NWO.
==Quotes==
"Never wanted to tell anyone else more. Not in my whole life," Merlin said. He bit his lower lip. He uncrossed his arms enough to gesture feebly in Arthur's direction before tightening his arms around his chest again. "I mean. Arthur's the only person I've actually told." - Merlin to Excalibur
Grew up hearing them tell me... over and over. Hide my magic. Don't use it. Don't let other people catch me using it. Don't talk about it. Ever. It's supposed to be a secret. It doesn't matter if I see other people casting spells or using magic, I wasn't allowed to use it. I couldn't show off. I had to do things like everyone else. Clean my room myself. The dishes. Even do my laundry. It kept getting pounded in me, over and over. It was a secret. Always a secret." -Merlin to Excalibur
"I'm just me," he said finally. He spread his hands in the air, shaking his head, biting his lip. He took a deep breath and said again, "I'm just me." - Merlin to Excalibur
"I don't get it," Kay said. He came back from the kitchen, tearing open a bag of buttered microwave popcorn, offering the contents to everyone in a quick, rushed sweep that didn't give anyone a chance to actually take some, and sat down between Gwaine and Perceval. "He's got all that power, but... he's terrified of us." - Kay to Excalibur
"You're like the poster boy for wouldn't hurt a fly. You couldn't even be arsed to tell Gilli where to shove the Crack Box every time he came to you for help. You let yourself almost die in Algiers. Your bursting on the scene like some bad-ass gunslinger -- sorry, spell-slinger, that's kind of like finding out that arrogant little prick Bruce Wayne is I'll-beat-your-ass Batman." - Arthur to Merlin
"And I'll keep saying we, Merlin." Arthur half-climbed out of bed, leaning in to plant a quick, hard kiss on Merlin's lips. "The sooner you realize that you're not in this alone, the sooner we can get on with us." - Arthur to Merlin
==Series Timeline==
Preceded By: 	Followed By:
First Contact	The Play's the Thing
Category:Parts