What happened to Merlin

Chapter 2

In the morning, Merlin looked a little bit better as he slept. Arthur and the knights packed everything up. Arthur really wanted to check on Merlin but he decided against it as he figured it would be better to let him sleep in. They waited for Merlin to wake up on his own. When he did, he wasn't filled with terror as much as he was yesterday; he could look at the rest of the knights, but still not make eye contact with Arthur. He was still a bit jumpy despite this improvement. They rode back to Camelot, Merlin riding with Lancelot because he was still the only one whom Merlin would respond to.
When they reached Camelot, they immediately went to Gaius' chambers. They barged in without knocking, causing Gaius to spill over a tincture he was making.
"What are you lot doing, barging in here like a bunch of hooligans?" he asked, clearly irritated.
Arthur couldn't hold himself back any longer. "Gaius! We found him! We found Merlin!"
Gaius dropped his test tube and quickly came running to the door when he finally noticed Merlin. He pulled him into a huge hug and surprisingly, Merlin hugged him back. It seemed as if he remembered Gaius but not Arthur... or maybe he did remember Arthur.
What if he's cowering away from me because of what I said to him before? Arthur thought to himself.
Gaius took a quick look over Merlin to check on his wounds and stitched them up. Thankfully, there were only a couple of them that were infected. Gaius quickly wrapped them up and gave Merlin a tonic to help with the infection. He told the knights that Merlin would be alright, and that he just needed lots of rest. They left him to get some sleep in his old room.
A couple of days later, Arthur went to check up on Merlin. Even though Merlin still occasionally flinched at the sight of Arthur, which completely broke his heart, Merlin was much better than when they had initially found him; he had started to recognize so many other faces. When Arthur entered Merlin's bedroom, he was asleep, so Arthur sat by his side just looking at him and making sure he was alright.
Suddenly, the unlit candles burst into flames and the wax melted much faster than they should have. Merlin started mumbling something incoherent.  Arthur realised it was a nightmare and moved to wake Merlin up. Merlin jumped from his bed screaming so loud that Arthur was sure the people of the lower town could hear it. Arthur did his best to calm Merlin down, but to no avail.
"Hey Merlin, it's alright. You're back in Camelot." Merlin wouldn't stop screaming, despite Arthur's soothing voice, which finally attracted a sleeping Gaius' attention. He and Lancelot came stumbling through the door to see what had happened.
However, Arthur quickly brought Merlin into an embrace and started whispering into his ear.
"It's alright Merlin, you're back, it's ok, it's ok... I'm sorry Merlin. I'm really sorry." With that, Merlin finally started to calm down and burst into tears, soaking the King's shirt, but Arthur didn't care. He knew that Merlin now forgave him because he stayed in the embrace without cowering away or flinching. He was finally open to Arthur, and kept sobbing onto his shoulder, while Arthur held on to him like that until they both fell asleep in that position.