Chapter 1

Will started after Marian's retreating form, but stopped at the feel of the light hand on his arm. He turned to look at Djaq, but her eyes were locked on the camp behind them.

"She is heading towards Locksley. She will be safe. We have another problem here."

"What problem?" Will asked.

"Someone's in there." She whispered, holding a finger to her lips as she took a step closer. Will followed closely behind as the two returned to the interior of the camp. They moved to the side and Will pushed back the sheet, jumping to the away as a fist came flying out of the opening.

"Get out of here before I kill you!" Kate yelled, trying to pull herself into a sitting position. She reached into her skirt and pulled out the dagger, brandishing it towards Will's throat.

"Stop!" Djaq called out, moving closer to the woman. "We are friends."

"You're no friends of mine." Kate answered, turning the dagger on Djaq.

"We are Robin Hood's men!" Will yelled out, moving to stand between the wavering dagger and Djaq. "Wait a minute. Don't I know you?" He asked, finally taking a good look at the other woman.

"Oh no, you won't be pulling those tricks on me! Get back!"

"I do know you!" Will said with conviction. "You are from Locksley. Kate, right? Your mother is the potter."

"What have you been doing? Spying on me?" Kate asked, stabbing the dagger through the air.

"It's me. Will Scarlett, my father was Dan Scarlett, the carpenter." He replied quietly, nodding his thanks as Djaq moved forward and placed a comforting hand on his arm.

"I don't remember you." Kate said, still holding the dagger. "How did you know to find this camp?"

"I built this camp." Will answered wryly. Before he could elaborate, a loud crashing came from the forest, announcing the arrival of Much and Allan. The two joked good-naturedly as they ran through the forest, Alan, just ahead of Much came to an abrupt stop as he spied the two people standing in the camp before him.

"Kate, how are you feeling?" Much was able to ask, just before crashing into Alan's back. "Alan, what has gotten in to you?" He cried out, before following Alan's gaze to the camp. "Oh my god." He ground out. "You're back." He said a grin stretching across his face. "I knew it! I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away!"

"Much what are you carrying on about?" John asked coming up behind them with Tuck at his side.

"It's Will and Djaq." Alan answered, moving forward to envelope the newcomers in a big hug. "They've come home."

Djaq felt dizzy as she was passed from one outlaw to another, when she reached the end of the line, she smiled at Will's bewildered look as he received the same treatment. When they both made it to the relative safety of the edge of camp, Djaq and Will looked around the assembled group with a smile.

"Where is Robin?" She asked a frown starting to form as she noted the missing man.

"Probably still talking with Isabella. If you know what I mean." Alan answered jokingly.

"Isabella?" Djaq asked glancing at the men she called friends for so long. "Who is Isabella?"

"Gisborne's sister." Much answered, as he handed Kate some water.

"And Robin's new girl." Alan answered with a grin.

"Robin's what?" Djaq asked startled, her gaze moving around the camp, not meeting any of the men's eyes as each dropped his gaze.

Just as her eyes finished moving around the group, the man in question came through the camp opening, a blindfolded woman close at his side. Before Robin could comprehend that Will and Djaq were in the camp, Djaq was on her feet and moving towards Robin.

"Idiot!" She yelled in Arabic, hitting him across the back of the head.

"What? Djaq?" Robin sputtered, moving Isabella behind him as he tried to pick up the words Djaq was yelling at him in Arabic.

"Idiot!" She yelled out again, switching to English. "Do you have any idea what we went through, what she went through to come back!" She yelled again, only stopping when Will came up beside her and put a calming arm around her shoulders.

"Will?" Robin asked looking to the younger man. "What is going on?"

"Marian." Will ground out, noting the likenesses between the noblewoman standing before them and the one they nursed back to health in the Holy Land.

"Will, Marian is gone." Robin replied in a soft voice.

"Marian is alive." Djaq interjected in a low voice. "She is alive."

Robin stepped back from the two newcomers, right into Isabella, as Djaq's words washed over him. He closed his eyes, and shook his head.

"She cannot be. We buried her." He said brokenly, his eyes opening to meet Djaq's and Will's.

"The men who were assigned to bury her noticed movement. They took her to hospital." Djaq answered.

"No one knew for a few days. Not even the king. As soon as his men told him that Marian lived, he sent word to us." Will continued.

Isabella, tired of being blindfolded and ignored as the conversation raged around her, threw the blindfold off and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. She made note of the group ranged around the camp, before her eyes fell upon Robin. She grinned in remembrance of their embrace moments earlier, before turning her attention back to the argument.

"Who is Marian? And why is her being alive so important?" She finally burst out. Her words brought the group to an abrupt stop as all eyes turned on her. Isabella took a step back as her eyes met Robin's anguished ones.

"She's my wife."

Tuck, noting Robin's loss of control of the situation, decided to take things in hand.

"We should all sit down. And hear this story from the beginning." He said, motioning to everyone to take seats around the camp.

"Where is she?" Robin asked, looking wildly around the camp.

"Robin, let them tell us what happened." Tuck said, putting an arm around the younger man, leading him in the direction of his cot.

Will and Djaq nodded, and moved to their old spots, Alan took a seat beside them as John leaned up against one of the posts. Much remained still, watching Robin closely as his master moved slowly to his cot, sitting wearily upon it, Isabella closely at his side. Much and Tuck were the last two to take their seats, Much moving to sit near Kate, and Tuck taking a seat across from Robin.

"How about you start at the beginning." Tuck said, one eye on Robin as he motioned to Will and Djaq. The newcomers looked at each other, before Djaq began the tale.

"It was two days after you left for port. Men from the king's personal guard came to Bassam's. They refused to speak to anyone but Will or I. When we saw them they told us the king wished to see us immediately." Djaq began slowly.

"We thought something had happened to you. But when we got to the camp, the guard didn't take us to the king's tent. But to the hospital on the other side of camp. King Richard met us just outside." Will continued.

"He took us to the side, before allowing us to enter. He told us that the diggers had noticed movement as they went to cover her. One man moved closer to check, and found she still lived. Just barely alive. The men carried her out and to hospital. They did not know of her importance, so two days passed before the king was notified."

"He went to check himself, and as soon as he realized it was Marian and that by some miracle she had lasted through the night, he sent word to us."

"She was so weak when we saw her. I didn't expect her to last another night." Djaq continued. "We knew your ship left that day, but there wasn't enough time to send word for you to come back. As it was, the king and his men were moving out the next day and Marian wasn't fit for any kind of travel."

"So we took her back to Bassam's and nursed her ourselves." Will interjected.

"She had taken a fever. She spoke of you." Djaq continued, sending an accusatory look to Robin. "We truly believed her body wouldn't be able to survive the trauma of her wound and the fever. The wound was infected and fever ravaged her. It took weeks, but she fought back and her fever finally broke."

"Marian was so frail. Even after her fever broke and her wound began to heal it took weeks before she could stand, let alone even think about a sea voyage home. We wanted to send word to you, but we knew that if you heard Marian lived, you would return straight to the Holy Land. And Marian wouldn't want that, she wanted you to stay and fight for the people."

"We also did not wish to give you hope. Even if we could convince you to wait for her to come back, we were not sure if she would be able to survive the voyage."

"We didn't want to give you hope only to take it away again." Will finished.

"I'm not being funny, but how does any of this explain where Marian is now?" Alan asked. "I mean I'm assuming she's still alive, otherwise you wouldn't have told us all this."

"We don't know. She's somewhere in the forest." Will answered.

"Isn't losing her what you're supposed to try to avoid?" Alan asked.

"We didn't do it on purpose." Will defended.

"We came back to the camp, but didn't see anyone here. We wanted to wait, give Marian a chance to rest, but she wouldn't hear of it. She didn't want to wait any longer to see you. She ran back out into the woods so quickly that before we could follow we had lost sight of her." Djaq added.

"Did you see where she was heading?" Robin asked jumping to his feet.

"Locksley." Will said simply, looking towards the others in question as Robin turned white, his eyes wide and unseeing as he looked out into the forest.

Without a word, Robin jumped off his cot and ran from the camp, heading towards Locksley.