Season 2 spoilers!
Good, that's out of the way. Baaack with another chapter. XD Thanks to everyone who has put this story on alert! Please review as well:) Again, this chapter is two years after the previous one, making Robin 14 and Marian 12.
I don't remember the show ever saying what happened to Marian's mother or when she died, so I decided to do my own spin on it. This chapter focuses on the guilt and pain that Marian feels, and Robin helping her deal with her emotions, bringing the two closer together and making their friendship stronger than ever. You'll understand this chapter better if you've seen episode 7 of season 2. I wouldn't suggest reading this without having seen it.
Robin's POV:
Robin rarely visited Marian's house. The Sheriff's home was a fine place, somewhere he'd never felt like he belonged. This was the first time he'd been there in years. His footsteps took him in one direction: up the stairs, to the room of the girl who needed his comfort.
He had to see Marian. He didn't know what he'd say, but he knew he had to be there for her.
Marian's POV:
At first, no emotion made itself known. Then they all exploded from behind her head, like a dizzying headache popping out of nowhere. She couldn't move; she was crying so hard, her muscles clenched with grief. Yet she found her knees giving way despite this. Before she knew it she was doubled over on the ground, not even registering the pain in her bones.
She didn't hear him coming. But she jerked when she felt a touch on her shoulders, and her tear-streaked face looked up to meet Robin's, lips shaking as she tried to form words, cheeks flushed, rubbing uselessly at her wet face. "She's dead," Marian whispered, but the words were bare sounds, not loud enough for him to hear.
Yet he understood what she said, because he was Robin, and then he wrapped his arms around her and let her lean against him. He was wordless, because there were no words that could be spoken for the pain she felt. Marian let him hold her for a few minutes, rocking back and forth in her sobs, and then felt she had to either speak or burst.
"It's my fault!" she cried out, her voice breaking at the last word. "I argued with her just last week. She was upset and she was yelling at me, and then she broke off and started coughing."
"She was sick, Marian. That's not your fault." His fingers stroked her hair.
"It was!" she insisted, stopping her crying to look him in the face briefly. "I disagreed with her blatantly. I argued back at her and told her how mad I was at how I couldn't live my own life, and she just started coughing. I walked away and left her by herself to go to bed."
"You and your mother argued about that all the time. She knew you were never yourself when you lived such a stifled life here."
Her voice cracked. "I walked away. She went to bed and got chills and a fever. She was delirious for days afterwards, and I fed her soup and tried to talk to her in the times she was awake and conscious. I cried and asked for her forgiveness, Robin, but I don't know if she heard me!"
Robin's POV:
This confession about the death of her mother had Marian violently sobbing again. Robin had no idea how to connect with her pain, and he knew that no words would take the guilt off her back right now.
"Never again, Robin," she cried into his shirt. "I'm never going to treat my father like that. I want him to always be able to trust me, to know that I'll do right."
"I know you will, Marian," he murmured into her hair. He believed her. No young girl should have to suffer such guilt and hurt without having someone who would stick by her through it all.
But what he didn't know was that on a day far, far away––years later––a similar scene would transpire, with him holding the girl he treasured in his arms as she grieved over the loss of a loved one.
Marian's POV:
It had been a long week. Marian felt dull and listless. Since that awful first day that her mother finally passed away in bed, she had barely cried. She'd sobbed and ached and stung so strong on that one day, it was as if she'd used up all her tears. She'd catch a few teardrops escaping her cheeks now and then, without even realizing she was crying.
This was the first time she'd dared to venture back into the forest. To face Robin. She needed someone to hug her. Her father tried, but he was so busy and he dealt with grief in a different way than she did. He was still worried and concerned about her, constantly asking her if she felt all right or if she needed something, but she knew that all she needed was time.
Time, and yes, Robin.
Marian sniffled and wrapped her arms around herself, tracing her way down the same trail that she usually followed. It was midafternoon, and this was usually a time of day that Robin spent at the forest. Her hair was loose and tangled in the cold wind, rather than pulled back into her mother's tight braid. It made her feel different with it hanging loose––as if she were missing some crucial little part of herself. She hoped Robin wouldn't notice, or if he did, that he wouldn't say anything.
Oh––there he was, perched on his tree branch. She tried to force a smile, but it wouldn't come. "Hey," she said quietly.
Robin didn't look at her at first, instead carefully focusing as he slipped off the tree, even though they both knew that climbing trees was a second nature to him. He finally hit the ground and studied her face. "So, how are you?"
Frustration rose. "Don't act like that with me, Robin, as if I'm a stranger. It's me. I haven't changed. Well, I have." All the words that had been bottled up in her this week were spilling out. How was it that she only voiced her true thoughts around Robin? "I feel awful. Not just because she's gone. Because she died thinking that I was mad at her. I can't believe I acted the way I did."
Robin took a hesitant step forward, then placed both hands on her shoulders. "She would forgiven you, Marian. You know that, right? In fact, I think she heard the words you whispered to her when she was sick in bed. I think she knew how sorry you were and still loved you, but just couldn't answer."
She held her breath, waiting for him to finish, and was surprised with the healing that the words brought to her. Maybe she'd known it all along, but just needed to hear someone say it. After all, her father didn't know what had truly happened between her and her mother.
"Thank you," she whispered, standing up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, and then let herself lean against him. A single tear rolled down her cheek. "But I still miss her so much. She was so good to me. I never properly appreciated it."
"Don't let yourself feel guilty about it," Robin told her sternly. "Just remember her. Make sure you remember her."
"I can't forget," she said brokenly, tilting her head. "But I promise I won't mourn her forever, Robin. I mean, I'll always miss her and love her, but I'll heal soon, I think. I don't want to waste my life wishing on what could have been. That's what Mother would have wanted, don't you think?"
"I know it." He rested his cheek on top of her head. "That's the girl I know."
"I want to treasure the time I have right now." Her voice was slightly muffled. "The time I have with you. When I'm still young. When I don't have to grow up and be responsible. I just want to make the most of my time, and to spend it with people that I care about."
"I think that's one of the greatest things we can do in life."
The two friends stood silently for some time, in embrace, in mourning, and in celebration for the life they were given.
Marian's POV (ten years later, right after she learns of her father's death):
It was like the universe was playing a joke on her, that for all her earnest words she should end up repeating the same action twice. Letting both her parents die, and her last moments with them wasted with hurtful words.
How could she have been so stupid?
The tears flowed freely, her grief twice as strong as during her mother's death. All she felt was endless regret.
When would the healing begin?
I realize this chapter is slightly shorter and has a more serious tone than the others, but I hope it flows pretty well and isn't too depressing. Even though I ended it by skipping ahead to when Marian was older, that's only for this chapter. The next chapter will be back to normal, with Robin and Marian as young teenagers.
Reviews are like hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. :D Which I'd doubly appreciate on such a cold windy day as this. Hot chocolate, not reviews. But reviews make me walk around with a stupid grin on my face, which really is better than and in no way like hot chocolate. -_- Anyway. Yeah.