TW: Somewhat graphic mentions of injuries. Reader discretion is advised.

Winona was a faster learner than even Merlin had been to Gaius.

Winona slept in Gaius' old bed, which Merlin had forced himself to remake and offer to her so that she could be close to the setup that Gaius had arranged. Gaius had been nothing if not organized, and Merlin did not think it would be fair to expect Winona to set up her own selection of ingredients as she learned the craft. Besides, he found that someone else in his home made it easier to get up. There was something expected of him now - someone needed him again, or at least wanted his company. That was enough to get him out of bed with a smile on his face.

They began with Merlin handing off some of the delivery duties to Winona. She was faster at delivering medicines than him, which was surely more efficient that Merlin's way of making conversation at each home he stopped off at, but Merlin advised Winona to sacrifice some of that efficiency for trust in her patients. If she made conversation with her patients, they were more likely to feel comfortable around her, and thus more comfortable being vulnerable enough to divulge their medical needs. It was something he found was always true with Arthur - he had a tendency to hide his pains from everyone around him, but he would usually allow Merlin to know of them if they became noticeable or a nuisance. He allowed no one else that courtesy - not even Gaius, usually, and Merlin couldn't help but feel a bit honored that Arthur trusted him to be vulnerable around him, something that Arthur despised more than most things in life.

Once Winona had taken over almost all of the delivery duties from Merlin, he began to teach her how to brew medicines. Instead of teaching her recipes for individual ailments, he taught her what each herb or solution Gaius possessed did, from pain relief to sleep aid to blood thinner. Each had crucial differences, and it was necessary to understand each of their properties to be able to use them effectively.

Then, he began to teach her about all the ailments he could recall coming across, from scratches made by dragons to stab wounds and poisonings. He taught her about every one he could remember, describing each of their hallmarks and what exactly to expect as far as illness progression.

Occasionally, about once every few days, Merlin would ask Winona to brew the potions required for a variety of illnesses. Some time sensitive, some not. For those that were time sensitive, he kept a close eye on her work to ensure it was correct, and if she hesitated, he could step in to help her. She never needed his help, though - each time someone came along that had been stabbed or poisoned or something else of that nature she was quick to come to their aid, sometimes without him asking that she do so if he was indisposed for some reason. She never hesitated - she was always confident in her work.

Which is why Merlin felt that she required only one more test.

As they had been training, Merlin had made a book containing all the necessary knowledge he could for her to refer to if she needed it. He included information about each ingredient and ailment they had covered, along with some magical ailments and their unusual cures. Before the test, he hid the book inside of a chest in his room. He wanted to confirm she could operate without the book, which he had full confidence that she could do.

He waited until he could hear her entering their quarters, and then he dragged the knife across his arm.

Winona entered their quarters cheerily, setting down her bag of herbs and tonics and calling out for Merlin so she could give him the usual description of the day's events. She always described the medicines she had given to each patient for what ailment and in what dosage in order to confirm she had acted with the correct procedures. When he didn't respond, she frowned, as she had been sure he had not left yet for lunchtime deliveries.

"Merlin?" She called again, this time a bit more uneasily. She walked up to his room where she saw the shadow of a figure through the crack in the door. She knocked softly. "Merlin? If you don't answer I'm coming in."

As no answer came from the other side of the door, she quickly went inside to find Merlin on the ground, right arm bleeding at an alarming rate. A pool of the red liquid was beginning to form underneath his arm, and she raced over to feel his pulse.

She began to mutter the reports she would usually call out for Merlin to hear. "Pulse is there, but weakening. A lot of blood has been lost, I'm going to quickly wrap the wound in a cloth tightly to try and stop the bleeding. If it doesn't stop I'll tourniquet the arm."

She ripped a piece of cloth off of the sheets on his bed, silently apologizing in advance, and tied it tightly around Merlin's bleeding forearm. As soon as she had done so, she ran to get her bag of supplies.

"Bleeding has slowed, but not completely stopped. I am holding the arm up to further slow bleeding. The cut appears swift and not deep, but likely nicked a vein."

She continued to hold his arm up, silently praying that the blood would stop. She had done this with plenty of people who showed up in far worse shape on their doorstep, but never Merlin.

Her thoughts were racing with the worst assumptions about what might've happened - by far the most intrusive one asking if he had done it himself - until she recalled something he had said earlier in her training.

"At some point, I'm going to give you a stress test. Sure, it's easy enough to learn through people you don't know and have no particular attachment to, but what happens when you know the person and you're watching the life slip away from them? Can you help them then, without being distracted by your emotions?"

She chuckled a little at how dramatic he sounded. "What, are you going to stab my friends?"

Merlin laughed then too. "No, no of course not!"

She hadn't thought much of it then, but what if this was her test?

She almost wanted to be angry at him for playing with his own life and her emotions for the sake of a test. But what if he was right? She felt flustered and thought she'd probably forgotten almost half of what she had learned just from the stress of finding him that way. She'd probably find a lot of people that way, sometimes people she knew. As harsh as it was, it sort of made sense.

She checked Merlin's arm again, thanking whatever deities had answered her prayers that the bleeding had stopped. Taking off the piece of a sheet she'd tied onto his arm, she rewrapped it, this time in a much better bandage and then moved Merlin onto his own bed instead of the floor. She left the pool of blood there for him to clean up - the punishment of his own stupid test.

Merlin waited until Winona had left the room to open his eyes again and stop feigning unconsciousness. He hadn't ever passed out - just kept his eyes shut, and in the stress of the moment Winona must've not noticed them occasionally fluttering. The cut hurt more than he thought it would, but as he expected, Winona had done everything she should have. Even though he felt quite bad for how harsh he was in testing her capabilities, he felt worse in knowing that a small part of him had felt happier after he cut his arm.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this short chapter! I'm sorry to have such a short chapter after a long break in updating, but finals just came and went and there was a lot going on with that. While I'm not going to set a schedule for my updates (because we all know by now that those aren't working for me, lmao) I'm hoping to upload much much more frequently, so maybe sometime soon I can get back to my everyday updating schedule! As always have a great day/night and (if you're a fan of criminal minds) make sure to check out my other story!