Alicia looked at the open duffel bag on Guy's bed and she noticed the precision with which the clothes had been arranged inside it.
"I think I've never seen a man pack in this way," she commented and Guy looked at her, a little uncertain.
"Did I do something wrong?"
Alicia smiled.
"All the contrary. Usually when patients take their belongings home, they are not so neat, especially men. Most of them throw everything in a suitcase, more or less in a jumble."
"It wouldn't be practical at all. When traveling, it is advisable to know exactly where everything is, in order to be able to recover it without wasting time in case of need."
"Have you traveled a lot in the past?"
"From France to England when I was young, and then I returned to France after the death of our parents... And in the Holy Land, twice."
"On a pilgrimage?"
Guy let out a bitter laugh.
"To kill King Richard the Lionheart."
"Twice?"
Guy sighed.
"Yeah. I'm not worth much as a killer."
"I can't see you as a killer," Alicia said, and she realized that she had said the wrong thing seeing Guy's pained look.
"But I am."
Alicia put a hand on his shoulder, in a gesture of comfort.
"Sorry, sometimes I talk too much."
Guy touched her hand with his own and gave her a sad smile.
"No, don't apologize. It's nice that you can see something good in me, despite everything. I appreciate it."
Guy carefully folded the last sweater and put it together with the others in the bag.
"I'll miss you, Alicia," he said suddenly, without looking at her not to show her how moved he was. "Without your help I would have been lost, I probably would have gone crazy for real..."
"Hey, you're not going to the other side of the world, don't talk as if this were a goodbye."
Guy let out a sort of bitter laugh.
"I'm a fool, don't you think? At my age I shouldn't be worried about a situation like this. And yet I'm afraid..."
The woman moved the bag and put it on a chair, then she sat on the bed and motioned for Gisborne to sit beside her.
"You're not foolish at all, and so far you've been even too brave. Do you have any idea how many sleepless nights I've had since Robin's rescue?"
Guy looked at her, surprised.
"You? Why?"
"Because I keep thinking about what happened and that I've really been in such a distant past, even if only for a few minutes. And then I wonder what would have become of me if we hadn't returned here, if we had stayed in the twelfth century..."
"I would have protected you, Alicia. I would have defended you at any cost."
"I know, but you couldn't do anything against famines or epidemics. I don't know if I'd have the courage to adapt to a world where a small cut is enough to die of infection."
"And will I be able to adapt to this time?"
Alicia smiled at him.
"Maybe you don't realize it, but you're already doing it."
"Because you helped me."
"No, because you are an intelligent and resourceful person. You survived so many adversities in your life, and you will continue to do so, I have no doubt about it. This is an opportunity. Perhaps following the program will be challenging, but after you do it, your life will be better."
"See? Just talking to you makes me feel better."
"We can always talk, even if we won't see each other as often as now. Here."
The doctor handed him a piece of paper and Guy looked at it.
"What's this?"
"My phone number. They will surely teach you how to use a phone, so we can talk even if we are not together. Remember that you can always count on me."
Gisborne smiled at her.
"I will keep it with care, thank you."
"Did you take all your stuff?"
Guy picked up the book of Robin Hood's adventures from the bedside table, and he handed it to Alicia.
"This belongs to you."
The woman gave it back to him.
"Now it's yours."
Gisborne nodded, moved, and Alicia hugged him tightly.
"Don't think I won't miss you," she whispered.

"Hood."
Guy sat next to Robin's bed and he looked at the outlaw's face, still in that unnatural sleep.
Since they had brought him into the present, Robin's condition had improved, and the doctors had said he was no longer in danger of life because of the poison, but he hadn't yet woken up from the coma and no one could say with any certainty if he would ever do.
"Come on, Hood, open your eyes. How can you always be so irritating?"
Guy sighed.
He wouldn't have the chance to visit the outlaw in the immediate future, and the idea of starting his new life while Robin was still there, stuck in that uncertain situation, troubled him. He felt responsible for him and at the same time he feared the moment of his awakening, if it was ever going to happen.
Every time he looked at his friend's face, he felt guilty.
What he felt for Miriam, the kisses that they had exchanged on the roof of the hospital, weighed on his heart when he thought of Marian, that love that had never been his and that had always belonged to Robin.
He shouldn't have let those feelings carry him away, he should at least figure out if that girl was really Marian or not and, if so, he had to force himself to give up on her, to let her go back to the man she truly loved.
Yet, every time he saw her, every word he exchanged with her, he was inexorably dragged towards Miriam, like a moth flying towards the flame of a torch. He would burn himself and he was perfectly aware of it, yet he couldn't get free from that sort of spell.
It must be Marian. Only she had this effect on me.
That thought terrified him and reminded him of the desert sun and the red of blood spreading over the girl's white dress.
It won't happen again. I'll rather die, but I'll never hurt her again.
This time Guy was perfectly aware that Miriam was not his, that he could lose her at any moment.
She could get tired of him, feel disgusted with him as soon as she realized who he really was, she could be horrified to learn about his past, or, if she was Marian, she would simply remember Robin and go to him without looking back.
Guy didn't allow himself to hope that he could be happy with Miriam, yet he wasn't able to give up those moments with her.
She will break my heart and I will accept it because I have no other choice.
Guy looked back at Robin's face.
If only the outlaw had awakened, perhaps he would feel a little less guilty every time he thought of Miriam.
As long as Robin was in a coma, Guy had the impression that he was acting behind his back, stealing something that wasn't his own.
"Miriam is identical to Marian," Guy said in a low voice, "and I kissed her."
He waited for a moment, hoping and fearing a reaction from his friend, but Robin didn't move and Guy sighed.
"Why do you always have to be so stubborn? If you had woken up earlier, I could have helped you, taught you the things I've learned since I've been here, for once I could have done something for you..."
A discreet knock at the door interrupted him and, turning to look, Guy saw that Alicia was waiting for him in the doorway.
"Is it already time?"
The woman nodded.
"The association's car has arrived."
Gisborne touched Robin's hand for a moment, then he stood up and reached the doctor.
"If he wakes up..."
"I'll let you know right away. Don't worry, we'll take care of him in the best way."
Guy took his bag and followed Alicia to the hospital entrance, where a man and a woman were waiting for him. They were the same people he had met a while before, during the meeting where he met Miriam, and Guy found himself thinking that he was feeling agitated and tense just like then.
Miriam wasn't present and perhaps it was good, otherwise her presence would have made him even more nervous.
He and Alicia had already said goodbye warmly, earlier in Guy's room, so they both behaved in a formal way before the others, to avoid questions or doubts about the professionalism of the doctor.
Alicia shook his hand and wished him good luck, and he thanked her politely, but they both knew that if they were alone, they would hug again, shedding some more tears.
Then, even before he was fully aware of it, Guy found himself sitting in the backseat of a car, traveling to a new life.

Guy looked at the little plastic archer he had been given by Jonathan Archer, and he placed it on the bedside table, next to Alicia's book. Perhaps it was foolish of him, but that gesture made him feel calmer and made the accommodation they had given to him a little more welcoming.
It was a small apartment, but still larger than the hospital room he'd lived in since he'd arrived in the twenty-first century, and Gisborne felt lost, completely alone in a place he didn't know.
It wasn't the first time he felt like that, indeed it seemed that his life had been a continuous start over, every time in a different place and each time with a new wound in his heart.
As a child he had left France to follow his parents in England, and, even if he didn't have many memories of the places where he was born, he remembered the long days of solitude spent watching from far away the games of other children who never invited him to join them. For them, born and raised in the same village, he and Isabella were the strangers to be isolated and mocked as soon as the opportunity arose.
He had often thought that if they returned to France, they would all be happier, but then life had denied even that childish illusion. He wasn't yet fourteen when he and Isabella had been banished from their lands after losing their parents. They had returned to France to reunite with their mother's relatives, but even that place had proved hostile and merciless towards the two lost children.
Guy's life had changed again after meeting the sheriff. He still remembered the cold winter day that had seen him returning to Nottingham, and the restless uncertainty of his first night in Locksley, in the house that belonged to the person who had ruined his life so many years ago.
Even then he had been afraid of not being up to the task that awaited him, and he had spent many sleepless nights out of fear of disappointing the sheriff.
Now he was back in a strange house, a house that had been given to him without doing anything to deserve it, and he had not the faintest idea what to expect from the future.
The difference was that now there was someone who cared for him, kind people who wanted to help him.
Guy wandered around the apartment, looking around: the bedroom was simple and functional, with a bed, a bedside table and a wardrobe not too big, but more than enough for the clothes he owned, then there was a bathroom similar to the one of his hospital room, and another room that was both a living room and a kitchen.
Gisborne concentrated on this last room because it was the one that contained objects and equipment that he didn't know yet.
When they had accompanied him to the apartment, they showed him the appliances, shortly explaining what they were for, and they advised him not to use them if he did not know how to do it, because they would explain it in detail in the following days. There was a machine that was used to wash clothes and another for dishes, then, instead of a fireplace, another appliance allowed cooking, while another kept food fresh.
Guy looked at those objects that replaced the work of the servants, and he wondered if it would be so difficult for him to learn to use them.
The opposite corner of the room, instead, housed a sofa, a television and a small bookcase on which he had already aligned the books that had been gifted to him during his hospitalization, putting them together with those that were already present in the apartment.
The hospital had never been really silent and he had grown used to hearing the sounds coming from the corridor, the steps of doctors and nurses, the ringing of bells and the voices of all the human beings around him. The apartment in comparison was tremendously quiet and Guy felt lonely, isolated from the rest of the world.
If he had been able to use the phone, that would have been the moment he would use that mysterious object to talk to Alicia, and seek the consolation of her words.
He decided that using a phone would be one of the most important things to learn and that the next day he would ask them to teach it to him as soon as possible.
Guy took a book from the shelf and stretched out on the sofa, wrapping himself in the soft blanket that was resting on it. He felt tired, but he didn't know if he could fall asleep.
With a sigh, he took the TV remote control and examined it: it was a little different from what he had used in the waiting room at the hospital, but the main buttons were similar and, after a few attempts, Guy managed to switch on the television.
He looked absently at the screen: there were some people sitting on chairs, looking uncomfortable and intent on discussing topics incomprehensible to him, but what they said didn't matter, they were still human voices, able to break the silence.
He opened the book he had chosen, and he began to read it, trying to focus on the story so he wouldn't think about anything else.
So far, apart from the one about Robin Hood, Guy had tried to read books that could help him to learn as much as possible about the twenty-first century, but now he had chosen one that told an invented story.
For one evening he didn't want to think about the future or about all the things he had to learn to be considered a normal person, he just wanted to get lost in someone else's story, just like when his mother told the adventures of some legendary hero to him and Isabella, in the long winter evenings spent by the fireplace.
He felt a little silly, but he imagined that it was Ghislaine's voice, so loved and never forgotten, to read that story to him, and that the voices coming from the television were the muffled chatter of the servants of the manor, engaged in their daily chores.
That was a reassuring mental image that made him feel less lonely, and Guy let the novel absorb his attention completely until it was tiredness to get the better of him.
The book slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground, but Gisborne didn't notice. He slept soundly and in his dreams that wasn't the first night he spent in his new house, but one of the peaceful nights of his childhood, when his life was happy and he hadn't yet discovered what fear and pain were.
"Maman..." He whispered softly, and in his dream Ghislaine stroked his hair.