Once Merlin was settled in the patient's bed, Gaius set about quickly gathering gauze and herbs in order to clean Merlin up. Arthur stood awkwardly next to the bed, unable to tear his eyes away from his mess of a manservant. "Gaius, tell me what happened." Gaius frowned as he set his supplies down on a table next to the bed. "Arthur, you can't remember anything that happened today?" Arthur shook his head. "Neither could any of the other… assailants."
"You think I did this?" Gaius nodded cautiously. "I'd never hurt Merlin like this."
"I know, Arthur. Not unless you didn't know what you were doing." he said, carefully removing Merlin's shirt.
Arthur sat on a stool on the opposite side of the bed to Gaius, and watched as Gaius carefully cleaned the blood from Merlin's still pale face, and started to gently probe Merlin's ribcage, wincing as Merlin let out a groan and shifted in the bed. "I think he's got a broken rib," Gaius explained. "I need you to hold him up slightly so I can wrap quake around him." Arthur nodded, and gently, lifted Merlin's torso off the bed, feeling a stab of guilt, which was added to a mountain of guilt already growing inside him, as Merlin let out another groan, forehead creasing in pain. As soon as Gaius was finished, he lowered Merlin back onto the bed, hurriedly pulling his hands away, as if he was scared that he'd hurt him even more, without realising it.
Arthur retreated a few metres away, to observe the damage he'd caused from a distance, Merlin's thick eyelashes began to flutter, and cracked open, revealing dark eyes filled with pain. His eyes flickered wildly around the room, widening when they came to land on Arthur. He desperately tried to sit up, but couldn't push himself further up than his elbows before collapsing, eyes becoming foggy for a second before clearing again. Gaius put a hand on Merlin's chest, so the weak boy couldn't injure himself more, feeling him tense as Arthur steeped towards him.
"Merlin… I know what you must think of me, but it wasn't me. I'd never hurt you. You've saved me so many times, and I did this to you. You didn't deserve this. I understand that you must hate me for what I've done. I hate myself too." Arthur said, his voice breaking, as he lowered his head so that Merlin couldn't see the tears building in his eyes. But when he felt a slender hand weakly grasp his own strong one, he couldn't help the tears overflowing down his cheeks. He looked up slightly to meet the earnest eyes of his friend, who was looking at him with forgiveness. "I know, Arthur." he whispered, before fatigue and pain overcame him, and his eyes slowly closed, hand loosening in Arthur's.
Arthur kept his eyes on Merlin's face, hand still clutching his limp one, and wiped his face with his other hand, embarrassed that Gaius had just witnessed such a display of emotion. "How long will it take for him to recover?" he asked, trying to re-establish a sense of normalcy, despite still clinging to Merlin. "Quite a while, Sire. That rib is going to make movement painful for him, but I'm sure he'll make a full recovery."
"Thank you Gaius. If there's anything I can do…"
"I think that just being here is quite enough for now. He'll appreciate it." Arthur nodded, and took a seat next to Merlin's bed. The next morning, when Gaius awoke, Arthur was still there, head resting on the bed next to Merlin, and fingers still entwined with Merlin's.