Author's Note: This is it. For the record, this kind of happily-ever-after story is not something I do often. It's actually only the second I've ever written. That probably says something terrible about me, doesn't it? What does it mean when someone is more comfortable with tragedy than joy? Ok, I'm getting off track here. I'll let you read the epilogue before I rant any further off topic. One last thing, though: this was originally about half the length it is now. It's expanded quite a bit since I uploaded the prologue. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Merlin.

Epilogue

"Stay," Mordred softly requested. "Please?"

He was shaking, Senga realized. His entire body was quivering. Tears brimmed in his eyes as he watched her, waiting for her response. She had never seen him this scared. So she sat on the bed next to him, slipping an arm around him and resting her head against his shoulder.

"I saw you die," he whispered. "I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my mind."

Senga didn't know what to say. She didn't know if there was anything she could say to that. Words had never been her best asset anyway. I'm right here, she said the only way she knew how: She held him just a little bit tighter. I'm not going anywhere. She moved closer until their legs pressed together. For as long as you need me.

His arms came around her then, and somehow they were lying on the bed instead of sitting, and he was holding her while his body shuddered with the force of his tears. She stroked her fingers over his shoulders, his back, his arms, into his hair, and waited for his tears to run dry.

"If this is a dream, don't wake me," he whispered when he had calmed enough to speak. "Don't leave me again."

Senga stretched her neck to press a kiss against his jaw. "Never."

Merlin found them the next morning in Mordred's chambers, fully clothed and sleeping on top of the covers, all tangled up in each other. He took one look and left much more quietly than he'd entered.

"Where's Mordred?" Arthur asked when Merlin came to the Round Table without him.

"I thought he deserved a chance to sleep in," Merlin said.

Arthur agreed easily. "We'll need him for getting messages to the Druids, so shelve that matter for now." Then the king paused and looked at Merlin. "Unless you can help with that?" he asked, his voice uncertain.

"Help with what?"

"We're planning a feast to celebrate the end of the war with Morgana," Gwaine explained. "There will be a bonfire and music and food aplenty. It's all very exciting."

"And I want to invite the Druids to join us," Arthur said. "But I don't know how to contact them. Can you?"

Merlin felt a tiny burst of pride. "Yes, I can do that."

Arthur hesitated again. Then he gestured to an empty seat. "Join us, Merlin. We could use someone with your knowledge."

"Knowledge of what, my lord?" Merlin asked. Because he simply could not resist.

"Druids, their customs, magic. If I'm to welcome it into my kingdom, I need to understand it. And I don't want to insult my guests without meaning to. So please, Merlin, take a seat."

Merlin smiled. He wanted to poke and prod further, to ask about who was going to do his regular duties—but sometimes he did know when to stop. Besides, no way was he going to give Arthur a chance to change his mind. So he sat down and answered all the previously taboo questions, corrected a lot of misconceptions, explained some of the limits and rules of magic; and for the first time in a very long time, he felt like he was doing something good.

"Good afternoon, Arthur," Gwen greeted her husband with a kiss. "Did you get the celebration planned out?"

"Most of it," Arthur said, digging into his lunch. "There are some details I need to run by Mordred, though."

"Something to make the Druids feel welcome?" Gwen asked.

Arthur nodded with a mouthful of chicken. "Did you get the problem with the granary sorted out?" he asked after swallowing.

"I did. Apparently it was an issue of suspect maintenance. We formed a plan to avoid further instances like this. Oh, speaking of plans reminded me," she said, acting as if the thought had just occurred to her. She waited until Arthur reached for his wine goblet before continuing. "We need to start planning the wedding."

Arthur choked.

Gwen tried not to laugh. She knew she shouldn't have done it, but sometimes the opportunity was simply too good to resist.

"Whose wedding?" Arthur asked.

"Mordred and Senga's."

He frowned. "Since when are they planning on getting married?"

Gwen shook her head in exasperation. Her husband really could be dense sometimes. Then a thought struck her, a thought that rolled around in her head and pulled her attention away from her husband. "Wouldn't that be lovely?" she mused quietly. "What better way to welcome Druids back to Camelot than to throw a wedding for one of their own?"

Arthur slowly raised his head to look at her. "One of their own who also happens to be one of ours."

"I wasn't serious, Arthur," Gwen said with a little smile. "It was just a thought."

"It was a very good thought."

"I don't think they want to be made into a spectacle," she argued gently. But she knew that look. His mind was made up.

"I'll ask Mordred first," Arthur reassured her.

Gwen raised an eyebrow. She knew that Mordred would never refuse a request from Arthur. But she let the matter drop, because she also knew that the idea was in fact a decent one. Now she could only hope her maid would forgive her.

"You'll never believe this," Arthur said in between bites, "but I just listened to the most fascinating lecture I've ever heard. From Merlin, of all people."

Gwen hid a smile. "What was he lecturing about?"

"Magic. I never knew it was so complicated, that there were so many rules. And he didn't even begin to go into detail! It really is quite interesting."

"Tell me about it."

Arthur launched into the subject—a subject that had been banned his entire life—so excitedly that Gwen could not keep hiding her smile.

The new Camelot, Arthur's Camelot, would be a very different one indeed.

Gwen couldn't wait to see it.

Five days later

"Merlin!"

The man in question stopped in his tracks and whirled around toward the voice.

Percival was walking toward him, long legs eating up ground so quickly he didn't have to hurry. "I wanted to talk to you."

Merlin offered him an uncertain smile. "About what?"

"About you being a sorcerer."

Merlin gulped. He remembered how Percival had reacted when Mordred was outed—but Percival looked almost calm.

Percival took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "The way you talked about magic, the way you explained it to the Round Table…it got me thinking. I've been thinking about it a lot these past few days. And I'm willing to admit I've been wrong to hate magic and wrong to hate the people who use it."

All the air in Merlin's lungs left in a whoosh. He was so shocked he couldn't even think clearly. This was not at all how he had expected this conversation to go.

"I'm still mad at you," Percival clarified. "I'm still mad at Mordred, too. And it will take a good long while before I get used to you again."

Merlin hesitated, hoped he was reading the man correctly, and extended a hand. "Still friends?" he asked quietly.

Percival smiled and clasped Merlin's arm. "Still friends," he confirmed.

Merlin nearly sagged with relief.

The big knight laughed and threw an arm around Merlin's shoulders. "Come on," he said. "Let's go help our Druid get ready for his wedding."

Senga couldn't make her hands stop shaking. And since Gwen had instructed her not to touch her hair or her dress or her cloak, there wasn't anything she could do to hide it.

"Are you nervous?" Gwen asked with a compassionate little smile.

"Weren't you before your wedding?" Senga said, realizing that her voice shook nearly as badly as her hands.

"Horribly so. It's not every day a serving girl has to act like a lady in front of the entire court, after all."

"Well then, that's one thing to be grateful for. At least I won't have to worry about how to run a kingdom after today."

Gwen took Senga's hands and smiled gently at her. "You don't have anything to worry about, Senga. Mordred loves you, and you love him. You'll make each other very happy."

Senga resisted the urge to stamp a foot in frustration. "I know that, so why am I still so bloody nervous?"

Gwen laughed. "Blame it on the fact that an entire kingdom is about to watch you get married."

"Whose idea was this again? Who decided it would be a good idea to make me get married on the same day as the celebration of the end of the war?"

"Mine, actually."

Senga snapped her mouth shut.

Gwen laughed again. "Say whatever you want to say. I know I would've hated it if someone did this to me. I just thought it would be a good way to convince the Druids that we are honest in our offering of friendship. When I mentioned it to Arthur, I honestly didn't expect him to agree. After that, it spiraled out of control."

Senga considered that. "So I really have Arthur to thank for this, not you?"

"Precisely."

"Fantastic," Senga grumbled under her breath. "It had to be someone I can't get even with."

Gwen leaned closer to whisper conspiratorially, "I think I can help with that."

"Why did I agree to this again?" Mordred grumbled under his breath.

"Because the way Arthur suggested it, you couldn't very well say no," Merlin said as he fiddled with the clasp of Mordred's cloak, trying to get it to lay just right.

"He can be an ass like that sometimes," Gwaine chimed in from across the room.

Merlin stepped back and studied Mordred from his hair to his boots. "All right," he proclaimed. "You are ready. I'll go let them know."

Mordred watched as the warlock dashed from the room and had to consciously resist the urge to fiddle with his clothes. They felt weird; they were stiff and uncomfortable—but apparently they looked good.

"You look like you're trying to ignore an itch," Gwaine said. "I take it those fancy wedding clothes are as comfortable as they look?"

"Less so, actually."

Gwaine stretched leisurely. In honor of the celebration, all the knights had foregone armor and weapons, except for knives in their boots just in case any arguments broke out and got out of hand. Mordred felt a prickle of jealousy as he watched Gwaine moving so easily. "Well," Gwaine finally said, "I'll see you out there."

On his way out, Gwaine caught Leon's arm and hauled him through the door with the taller man protesting all the way.

That left only Percival and Mordred.

"I wanted to talk to you," Percival said.

Mordred swallowed nervously and turned to face his friend.

Percival met his gaze. "I wanted to apologize. For the way I acted when I found out you're Druid."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Mordred said matter-of-factly. "You had every reason to be angry."

Percival ducked his head, grumbling under his breath. "Will you stop being so bloody polite long enough for a man to apologize properly?" Then the bigger man stepped forward and held out a hand, meeting Mordred's gaze once again. "I hope we're still friends."

Mordred clasped his arm without hesitation. "Of course."

Percival smiled. "See you out there," he said, clapping Mordred on the back and then heading out the door.

Mordred took a deep breath in the suddenly quiet room, trying to settle his nerves. I'm getting married tonight. The thought sent jitters down his spine.

Then he took a deep breath, tried not to grin like a ridiculously happy fool and failed, and walked out the door.

Mordred still hadn't let go of her hand. Even though the handfasting cord had already been untied, he still hadn't let go.

Senga didn't mind at all.

"Come on," he said, standing and pulling her to her feet. "Dance with me, lady love."

She hesitated briefly and bit her lip. "I don't know how."

He smiled gently. "I'll teach you."

Then Senga looked into his eyes and realized she didn't care if she made herself a fool in front of the entire kingdom, because she would never be a fool to him. So she smiled, squeezed his hand, and shoved her silly worries into the back corner of her mind.

And she danced with her Druid by the light of a bonfire to music that resonated in her soul.

Merlin leaned back against a wall, drink in hand, and simply watched the celebration for a while. Some people were dancing, some eating, some singing, and everywhere he looked he saw Druids. They mingled with people native to Camelot and—insofar as Merlin could tell—they were being accepted. The wedding had been a good idea, he had to admit. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't come up with any better way to introduce Druids back into Camelot. Weddings were almost a universally sacred event. No one wanted to be the ass who ruined a wedding. As such, no one was picking fights, or drinking too much (except for Gwaine, but that was normal for him), or even getting so boisterous in their celebrating that they became annoying. Altogether, everything was going very smoothly.

He still expected to wake at any moment to find it had all been a dream.

"You're Emrys, aren't you?" The question came from his left, startling him so much he nearly spilled his wine.

Merlin looked at the girl who had interrupted his thoughts. A Druid, definitely; there was no other way she would know that name. She was around six or seven years old and stared up at him with wide brown eyes. "I am Emrys," he said evenly.

"I didn't expect you to be so tall," she said.

Merlin smiled. "What did you expect?"

The girl shrugged. "My mum says you're a hero."

"And heroes can't be tall?"

"They can if they're really heroes."

Merlin crouched down until his eyes were level with hers. "Do you want to hear a secret?"

She nodded, eyes growing even wider.

"I'm not really a hero," he whispered. "I just try to do what's right. If you do the same, people might call you a hero someday."

The girl positively squealed and then ran off, presumably to her mother.

Merlin cocked his head to the side and wondered what he'd done wrong.

"That's probably the first time anyone's told her a girl can be a hero, too," Gwen said from behind him.

"Who ever said girls can't be heroes?" Merlin asked, genuinely confused.

Gwen laughed. "The woman who finally catches you is going to be very lucky indeed."

He stood and faced her, trying not to react. Thankfully he didn't have to try long.

Gwen hugged him. "Thank you, Merlin."

Merlin patted her back uncertainly. "For what?"

She withdrew and smiled at him. "Keeping Arthur alive all these years."

Then she left him to his quiet corner. Merlin settled back against the wall and sipped his wine. He searched the crowd until he found Arthur. Gwen had somehow convinced him to dance and she was doing a marvelous job; Arthur, on the other hand, looked completely lost. Gwaine was laughing at the king, Percival had found a dance partner of his own, and Leon was standing off to the side having a very serious yet also friendly conversation with a Druid. Merlin hoped Elyan and Lancelot were watching. He allowed himself a moment's regret that they could not join the celebration.

Merlin began studying the people around the king and queen—and then caught himself looking for signs of aggression. He realized he was looking for an assassin. Even though he had no reason to.

He'd spent so many years trying to keep Arthur alive that he couldn't even take one night off. He had spent so many years making sure other people found happiness that he'd forgotten how to be happy himself. He had friends, sure, but when was the last time he'd been truly happy, the last time he'd smiled for no particular reason? He did not even remember. He had watched other people live while he had buried himself in duty.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Merlin didn't want to just sit back and watch anymore.

He downed the rest of his wine in a single swallow and joined the celebration.

Tomorrow he would start figuring out how to balance duty and joy. For tonight, he would simply have fun.

And there you have it. My happily-ever-after/everyone-lives version of Merlin. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

Finally, in case you didn't know, reviews are a fanfic writer's ambrosia and nectar. Every last morsel is treasured. That's why I beg so shamelessly for them every chapter. So don't hesitate to send one my way!

Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy lives to read my story! And please review :)