bunnysworldTitle: Rear-ended
Rating: G
Pairing(s): Merlin/Arthur
Warnings: none
Word Count: 1200
Prompt: 1200
Summary: Merlin’s involved in a little accident
Notes: Sorry, once again not beta’d.
Merlin frowned. How on earth could anyone find this new traffic routeing at this intersection anything but confusing? They had re-done everything in a huge construction project for two years, taken away the traffic lights and made things complicated.
Anyway, he was on his way to meeting friends for brunch and this was the shortest way to go.
He stopped, blinker to the left and when it was clear, he slowly drove into the intersection, where he immediately set the blinker to the right side and stopped. He needed to let the oncoming traffic through before he could take his right turn.
He was so focussed on the oncoming traffic that it took a moment for him to realize that the crashing sound and the motion that shook him was due to someone rear-ending him. Disbelievingly, he stared into the back-view mirror. How could this person not have seen him standing there? And who had ever been rear-ended by a tractor?
The driver of the tractor didn’t show any signs of intending to get out of his vehicle, so Merlin did and walked up to the operator’s cab.
“Excuse me, but you just rear-ended me.”
The driver shrugged his shoulders.
“You caused quite the damage to my car, how about you get out and we get this settled?”
The adrenaline was already pumping through him. In all of his time as a driver, he had never been involved in an accident. His car had been damaged by a falling branch and twice someone who tried to parallel-park in front his car, caused some damage, but he had never been inside the car when it had been hit.
“You brake suddenly!” The driver, still comfortably seated and all indifferent, said in broken English.
“How suddenly can I hit the brakes when I had to stop there and only moved into the intersection to here?” Merlin pointed, totally flabbergasted by the man’s obvious refusal to acknowledge that he had caused an accident.
“You no blink!”
Merlin got louder. “You can still see that I did indeed set the blinker! You didn’t look!”
Finally, the man crawled out of the tractor and then started to argue.
All Merlin understood was “No blink” and “Brake suddenly” and the rest was drowned in a language Merlin didn’t understand. The more he replied, the less the man was willing to understand him, so Merlin pulled his mobile out of the pocket of his jeans.
“I’m calling the police.” This was the right thing to do. With his luck, the driver wasn’t insured or didn’t live here and that would only make things more complicated.
“They’ll be here in half an hour.” Merlin told the other driver.
“No time! Have to be on field!”
“I have an appointment as well and we both could be where we are supposed to be right now if you had paid attention!”
Merlin took photos of the damage, the way the vehicles stood on the intersection and hated all those driving by who had nothing better to do than to stare.
“Need to go field!” The man argued. “They waiting! It’s over there.” He gestured.
“You can’t leave!” Merlin couldn’t believe it. The man actually thought he could drive away now?
“Have to!”
“Okay, leave. But then you will be in deep, deep shit.” Merlin didn’t care anymore. He had the photos, he had the license plate, he even had taken a photo of the man. If he left the scene of the accident now, it would be a hit and run and the guy wouldn’t drive any kind of vehicle for a while.
Finally, a police car arrived, parked behind them and three policemen got out.
Hadn’t Merlin be so high on adrenaline, he might have noticed that all of them were good-looking and tall.
While the tallest of them turned to the other driver, the blond turned to him. “This is your car?”
Merlin nodded.
“Tell me what happened.” The cop had pulled a little notebook from one of the many pockets of his uniform and noted down what Merlin said, not commenting, just nodding once in a while.
He examined the damage on Merlin’s car and checked his papers.
“Are you alright?”
Merlin blinked. Was he? “I…I don’t know…”
“The way you described the accident, none of you could have been very fast, but there is still the possibility of an injury.”
“I’m…to be honest…I’m still high on adrenaline.” Merlin’s hands had been shaking since he got out of the car. “I can’t really tell.”
“Injuries can only show later, up to 72 hours later. Go see a doctor immediately if something occurs and when you are done there, give us a call. My name is Pendragon.”
Merlin nodded. “Will do. Thank you.”
The other policeman had gotten the tractor driver’s info. “You need to exchange your numbers, so you can get his insurance info.”
“Okay. But…can I drive? I mean…it’s Saturday, I won’t reach anyone in a garage today and I need to go to work on Monday.”
Together, the three policemen examined the damage.
“Does the hatch open?” The dark-skinned one asked.
Merlin tried and it worked without a problem.
“Let’s try blinker and brake-lights.” The tallest one said.
Merlin got in and set the blinker and stepped on the brakes.
“Still working!”
The cover of the lights on the driver’s side was smashed, though and there was quite the damage to the hatch.
Officer Pendragon turned to Merlin again. “Cover it with foil wrap, tape it around the edges. Get it fixed as soon as possible. And if I were you, I wouldn’t go long distances until then.”
Merlin thanked the policemen, checked that he had all the info he needed and when the police car was gone, he left, too.
+++
He hadn’t thought the accident would have such an impact, but when he couldn’t get rid of the headache that he had woken up with on Sunday morning after feeling perfectly fine for the rest of Saturday, so he made a trip to his doctor, who explained about whiplash injuries and put him on sick leave for a few days.
As Merlin left the office, checking which one of the papers his doctor had pushed in his hands, he bumped into someone.
“Oh, so sorry!” He stammered and when he looked up, he frowned. The face looked familiar.
“Mr. Emrys!” The blond beamed. “Are you alright?”
Confused about why the stranger knew his name, Merlin blinked. “Officer…Pendragon?”
“Arthur. I’m off duty.”
“Merlin,” Merlin offered and could have rolled his eyes at himself. Of course the officer knew that.
“Are you alright?”
“Just some headache, as you predicted. Whiplash something. I’m on my way to the pharmacy to get some pain killers and then to find a coffee. Doctor said caffeine helps with headaches, too.”
Officer Pendragon nodded. “I’m sorry that you’re not feeling good, but…can I buy you that coffee? There’s a little café right next to the pharmacy.”
“Is that part of the acquisition of accident data?” Merlin smiled wryly.
“We care about the citizens of our community.” Arthur grinned. “And would like to get to know them.”
Despite himself, Merlin laughed.