Disclaimer:Robin Hood is copyright to Tiger Aspect and the BBC. All Rights Reserved. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made.
A/N: This was written for RH Drabblefest on LiveJournal in August, but at 225 words it's a ficlet more than a drabble.
I had a different version of what really happened in the Baby Seth fiasco in my first RH fic, A Different Side, in which Seth's abandonment is blamed on a convenient guard. But then this version came up in the discussions on the Robin Hood Fan Community on the Yuku boards (thank you, all my wonderful fellow fans there! If you want to join us, check my profile for the link), and I kind of liked it. Still not sure what my head-canon is. For this ficlet … it's this.
At first, Guy doesn't know why the big man eyes him with such hatred.
Then Allan tells him, and he understands. Had anyone done that to his child…
Even if he wanted forgiveness, he wouldn't know how to ask.
Yet once when they are briefly alone, Guy feels the man's gaze, turns to meet it – then looks away and spits out, "Your son, is he all right?"
"You do not speak of him!" the outlaw barks. Taking a deep breath, he goes on, "What sort of man are you, to lay your hands on a child? To leave your own babe to die in the woods?"
Guy shudders, pierced by shame and some other unfamiliar pang. He has not thought of it since. He could never explain his sudden fear that just when he was secure enough to woo Marian, the payments to Kirklees would drain his purse, or that she'd know; or his vague notion that it wasn't his fault if the child was not found and rescued.
Shaking his head, he murmurs, "I do not know."
Little John huffs and snorts. Grudgingly, he says, "He is well"; and, more to himself, "He is lost to me. But that is my fault."
They lapse into awkward silence. Somewhere in Guy's mind lurks the uneasy thought that he and the outlaw have something in common.