Never Too Late
By Caro A Dale
A/N: It's here! The sequel to Blast to the Past! Maybe I'll name the chapters once they're up, but I gotta focus on getting ALL these darn pages typed up! Set a few weeks after Blast to the Past ended. Allan is back in the gang, but I may later write things that happened between this sequel and the original story in future fics, and some may just be out of sequence, I don't know, just enjoy what I have now!
"Run, master, run!" Much shouted. Robin paused, only to see his friend stagger, ands then fall to the ground, an arrow lodged in his back.
"Much!" Robin called, panic evident in his voice.
"Keep running, master!" It was now that the guards began to swarm Much like vultures to a fallen deer, and despite his injury, he got up as quickly as he could and tried to fend off the guards.
Robin, not wanting to risk another injury, drew his bow and fired, the arrow landing squarely in the chest of one of the guards. Much had managed to slay two of them with the sword he held. The one guard left uninjured took off running in the opposite direction.
Much, once sure the last guard had gone, staggered over to Robin.
"Doesn't look too bad." Robin said, between labored breaths. "We'll have Djaq take a look at it."
Robin then helped his wounded friend home. Once back at the camp, the two friends were greeted by a very worried Djaq.
She swore in Arabic under her breath. Robin, understanding some of it, shot her a disapproved look.
"Uggh! Just as Allan has almost made a full recovery, you have to go and get shot. What is with you people anyway? You're dropping like flies." Djaq grinned as she said the last sentence, letting them know it was only a joke.
Robin rolled his eyes, and Much sat down on his bunk and let Djaq examine the wound.
"Not too serious. I take it those guards aren't very good shots. Their aim was good, but the power of the shot must not have been too great. I can take the arrow out, clean the wound, and you should rest for a day or two." Djaq said, the two men sighing with relief at the lack of depth in the wound.
There was an awkward silence, broken only when a very cheerful Caro strode into camp.
"Hey, guys! How's it- Oh, my God! What happened?" Caro gasped as she saw Djaq reaching to remove the arrow from Much's back.
Much turned his head towards Caro and smiled sheepishly. "A run in with some poorly trained soldiers. Should be fine though, if I rest a bit."
Much winced and hissed in pain as Djaq dislodged the arrow.
After Djaq had finished treating Much's wound, Allan, who had been on lookout duty with Will, entered the camp.
Djaq, Caro and Robin had all agreed that Allan wasn't well enough for direct combat, but today, despite being called a little overprotective, Caro had finally let Allan go on lookout duty with Will, where there was little chance of armed conflict.
"What's up, mates?" Allan greeted the others, and approached Caro, who was busy mending a torn part of one of her tunics.
Caro looked up from her work and smiled at him.
"Hi." She said. He sat on her bunk next to her, and she put her arm around him, stopping her sewing.
"How was lookout duty?" she asked, knowing what he would say.
"Boring." He said. Caro laughed at the image of herself being on lookout duty the week before. She also found it very boring.
"I suppose it is," Caro replied after they both had a good laugh. "But somebody's got to do it, and besides-"
Allan rolled his eyes, and he mimicked her as she spoke. "Lookout duty is the safest job!"
They both laughed, and Caro, had Allan not been stabbed there a few weeks before, would have elbowed him in the side.
Soon enough, Will and John returned to camp, and the outlaws had their supper.
"So, Robin, how was Marian?" Djaq inquired in a teasing voice at supper.
"Alright." Robin rolled his eyes, but the others could not keep a straight face as their leader blushed at the mention of her name.
Caro soon yawned and retired to her bunk, soon followed by Much, Allan, Djaq, Will and John. Robin, however, stayed awake, and he sharpened arrows and cleaned his sword for about an hour. After this, the leader of the outlaws finally retired sleepily to his bed.
Caro awoke with a start, and looked frantically over to Allan's bunk, which was under Much's, and found to her relief, that the man she loved was sleeping peacefully. She sighed, relieved from her nightmare.
"Stop! Please stop it!" Caro shouted through tears as she watched them. Allan was tied up, across from herself, and she tried to get to him, to give those bastards a piece of her mind. But, no, she was helplessly tied up too. Most of them, she recognized only as nameless enemies. Guards. But there was one, unmistakably, that she knew all too well. Guy of Gisborne held a knife to Allan's throat and she could see the fear in his sky-blue eyes.
"Tell me where Hood's camp is. Or you will die a long, slow, painful death." Said the deep, intensely calm voice of their enemy.
"Not being funny," Allan choked, "I already am."
Allan's eyes closed, for the last time, and though Caro screamed, cried and begged that somehow he'd come back to her, he didn't.
Allan, Gisborne, and all their surroundings had faded as Caro woke up. It was only a nightmare, she told herself. None of that happened. He's alright.
Caro's deep, labored breaths slowed and returned to normality again, and she dressed, and judging by the smell of fresh fish coming from Much's kitchen, she assumed she wasn't the first one up.
Just as she, Much, Robin Djaq and John, who were all up and ready for the day's work, sat down to breakfast, Will's voice rang out over the camp area. "Travelers on the North Road!"
Caro, Much, Robin, Djaq, Will and John armed themselves, and Allan, who must have been awoken by Will's warning, made to get his sword. Caro spotted him, and he blushed as she took it from him and said, "Not this time, Allan. Stay here. We should be back soon"
Allan, despite his dislike for having to stay at camp, obeyed, and silently began to eat his breakfast.
Caro joined the others to ambush the unsuspecting travelers.
"My name is Robin hood. And this is an ambush!" Robin said triumphantly to the driver of the carriage as he jumped out of hiding, frightening the two horses pulling the coach.
"There are good people starving." Said Will, revealing himself.
"And you, my friends, are in the wrong place," continued Caro, taking her place slightly behind Robin.
"At the wrong time." Much finished.
"Your donations will help the poor," John began.
"If you are honest," Djaq said.
"We will take one-tenth." Caro said, enthusiastically.
"Lie," John growled, raising his quarterstaff ever-so-slightly.
"Or resist," Much and Will said together.
"And we take it all." Robin said, completing the explanation.
"Very good," said the driver. "But I doubt you'll want to steal from my passenger."
"And why is that?" asked Robin, raising an eyebrow and aiming his bow at the slowly opening door of the carriage.
His jaw dropped as the passenger came into view.
TBC
A/N: Uh-oh…I think I'm officially evil. I hope you thought Caro's nightmare was okay. And yes, the ambush scene is slightly based on the opening scene to "SisterHood." Aren't I so evil, ending it here? Hahaha maybe I should make you guys wait another week before I post the next chapter… Nah, I'm evil, but I'm Guy compared to the sheriff. I don't actually enjoy watching others suffer. You know why? Cause I feel your pain. When people don't update their REALLY GOOD stories for a really long time, I get just a little cranky. So, avoiding being that guy, I can be expected to update sometime tomorrow. Reviews are what keep me going!
