Chapter Text
The melancholy beep of a life support machine was all anyone heard as time stretched on. Eggsy, now Galahad, caught himself holding his breath, watching the man on the bed. Roxy, the new Lancelot, stood beside him, tense.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Merlin said quietly. “Everything happened so fast, and I was honestly certain….”
Eggsy turned to him. “You thought Harry wouldn’t survive?” he asked incredulously.
“No one should have survived what we saw.” Merlin looked at him, a little perturbed that his belief in Harry was being questioned. “You watched Valentine shoot him, what did you think?”
Eggsy lowered him head in shame, and then slowly looked back up at Harry laying in his bed, fighting for his life. “That no one could’ve survived that.”
“I’m most grateful emergency protocol kicked in,” Merlin explained. “Our people arrived only moments after Valentine left. Also, several Kingsman have agreed, though there’ll need to be a formal vote, that should Harry survive…”
He trailed off as the room door opened. A woman. Eggsy’s brain barely had room to process her existence, though her existence seemed calculated to keep Eggsy from doing just that. She was moderately pretty, in a second-cousin-to-Emma-Stone kind of way, auburn hair falling to her shoulders, minimal makeup. Eggsy couldn’t guess her age, her long, straight skirt and tailored blouse being both stylish and classic all at once. She wasn’t young, but no silver could be seen in her hair. She was the type of person that you looked at, noted, and then instantly forgot when she was out of view. Like Harry, came the stray thought, as Eggsy tried to shake off his worry and anxiety for Harry to better focus on the newcomer.
“Elaine,” Merlin reached out to briefly hug the woman with more emotion than Eggsy had yet to ever see from him.
“Merlin,” the woman said tersely, accepting the hug, though obviously holding herself in control by a thread as she viewed Harry. Her mouth twisted with the sob that she refused to let out. “H-How is he?”
“Alive. Alive when he should not be. The doctors can’t tell us more than that, for now .”
She nodded, breathing shallowly. She looked at the still form with such longing, both Eggsy and Roxy had to suck in air to control the tears that had threatened to fall since they had arrived. “My Galahad,” she whispered.
Eggsy and Roxy looked from her to Merlin, confused. Who was this woman that knew Harry's codename?
“Galahad no longer,” Merlin said shortly. Eggsy’s eyes about bulged out his head at Merlin’s next word. “Arthur.”
Elaine looked at Merlin, and nodded her approval. Merlin looked at Roxy and Eggsy.
“Lancelot and Galahad, I would like to introduce you to Elaine Hart.” He stared hard at them both. “Harry’s wife.”