Disclaimer: I do not own BBC Merlin and receive no monetary rewards from this story. Set in Season 1.

Chapter 1: A New Doctor

Gaius looked up from his botanic extrapolation experiment as Merlin quickly opened the door. "What is it, Merlin?" Gaius calmly asked, well aware that it might be nothing. The downside of having your apprentice feeling that it was his duty to provide for the safety of all Camelot was that sometimes he would jump to conclusions when nothing was amiss. Of course, there were those times Merlin had saved Camelot, but people usually forgot those.

"It's in the lower town," Merlin said, "The people are, well, um…"

"Get on with it, Merlin."

"Well, they're going to another physician." Merlin tentatively said.

"You mean Dr. Cornelius; but I thought he'd retired three years ago, he said he needed to get back to tutoring."

"No, not him. This man calls himself: Ivan the Booksmasher."

"What? I've never heard of such a man."

"Well, I didn't actually see him; anyway, it's important."

"Well," said Gaius, setting his hand down on the bench. "I don't think it's that important. Unless, he's using magic as King Uther forbids, or he actually does better at treating disease than we do. After all, we have an entire library at our disposal, and he, going by his name, has something against books. That reminds me; we must send Geoffrey of Monmouth a present for his birthday this year, I'm sure he doesn't leave that library much."

"Yes-"

"And we should also have you and Gwen scrub all the walls and shelves of the library, all that dust can't be good for him."

"Well, yes, but…" Merlin fiddled his hands.

"I can even get you off your service to Prince Arthur duties, if you'll agree."

"Gaius, much as I'd like that there is something very important."

"Yes, Merlin?"

"One of Ivan the Booksmasher's patients is out in the hall."

"MERLIN!"

They hurried the somewhat breathless woman into their workroom, quickly sitting her down. Her skin was blotchy and turning bizarre colors, only accentuated by a rash.

"…And it also hurts painfully right here," she muttered, hand on her chest. But it turned out that wasn't the last symptom they learned about as she also promptly fell off her chair. As was noted before, Merlin was cautious to a fault. As he tried to catch her, his hand was forced to the ground, and a glass jar that had been strapped to the woman's shoulder, broke all over his hand.

"M' very sorry," the woman said, seeing Merlin's lacerated hand. "I didn't realize how dizzy I was."

"That's alright." Gaius said. "Tell us everything that happened."

"Well, the other day I had trouble breathing. All m' nearby neighbors in the lower town were talking about a new doctor, and then he walked right by m' kitchen outdoor window. M' sorry, I know you're the official court physician, but a new face in town, is, well, a new face."

"Go on."

"So, I walked over to him and told him about m' problem. He gave me this jar and told me to breathe from it while pressing this movable lever twice a day."

"Did he do anything else?" Gaius quizzed.

"Yes, he took the whole chicken bird I'd just cooked as payment and muttered something indistinguishable."

"Did he mutter magic words?" Merlin interrupted.

"No, he didn't say "please" or "thank you" at all. He was awfully charming, but not as polite as that."

Gathering herbs, Gaius made the woman a relaxing tonic, but they really weren't sure what else they could do. Merlin left to polish the knights' boots for a couple of hours, and by the time he came back, the woman was just starting to get to her feet again. He helped her back down to her house where her twin sons were wondering if they'd ever get supper.

As Merlin walked home, he remembered how fortunate he was to have his own room in the castle. Most of the dwellings in the lower town only had one or two rooms. He was walking past one of these houses as Gwen called him inside. She smiled as she handed him a biscuit that she had just baked. Recently, Gwen had been practicing her culinary skills and Merlin had intentionally walked back past her house in the hope that she would be looking for taste testers. But as Merlin reached for the biscuit Gwen gasped.

"Merlin! Have you been feeding those stray cats again?" The cuts on Merlin's hand did look rather like cat claw marks.

"Actually, this was what Arthur calls an occupational hazard."

Gwen looked even more shocked.

"It's, it's not Arthur's fault this time, it's just that a jar broke all over my hand. Arthur was telling me yesterday that if I get hurt while working, it's an occupational hazard."

Gwen calmed down, "Alright, but you're coming with me." She yanked him out of the house, closing the door behind them. She hurried them down the street, as the air began to chill and nip at their throats.

They stopped in front of the tavern. "I know you don't want to go in there, Merlin, because the knights will tell Prince Arthur that they saw you in there. But there's a doctor in there, who can practically work miracles, and he owes me a favor for that apple pie he nabbed the other day, so I want you to go get your hand fixed." She stood waiting for Merlin to go on, obviously she had no intention of going into the tavern herself.

"You know, Gwen, I work for a physician, I don't need to see another one." Merlin backed away from the tavern door.

"But this doctor is great!" Gwen sighed.

Just then a man with a shining face and large eyes walked out of the tavern. Others, including some of the knights, followed the man outside.

He jumped onto the horse tethering post, "Did I hear someone say the doctor was great? Well, that's what I am, GREAT!" Gwaine began singing a nutty song about the new doctor.

Then he jumped off the post, right in front of Merlin and Gwen. "I am Ivan the Booksmasher and I have a new patient!" He grabbed Merlin's scabbed hand and jerked it into the air like he was an Olympian. Merlin grimaced as the men cheered. Then they began to chant, "Heal him, heal him!" as Gwaine's song meandered in the still air.

"Actually, that's alright." Merlin said to Ivan, attempting to squirm away.

"Let it never be said," began the Booksmasher, "that I left a patient wounded by the side of the road. Especially one with such a lovely friend." He said, turning to Guinevere. If Merlin hadn't been so worried about being in this "doctor's" point blank range, he would've noticed Gwen's nervous expression melting, coordinating with her black curls that reflected a thousand glints of light.

Ivan the Booksmasher reached into one of his oversized pockets and pulled out shiny triangular thing, twisted a cap off of it, and smeared colloidal stuff from it all over Merlin's hand. Merlin spun his head around, and saw in the last tenth of a second that the man's eyes had shone gold.