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"Now, does she want an egg or bacon? She can't have both, I don't care who she is."

Much, God bless his soul, was in a quandary about what to serve a severely wounded Marian for breakfast.

Djaq however, was in a quandary about something altogether more serious:

"Pray to your God... and to mine. She is going to die."

She had done her best to treat the wound but Gisborne's dagger had hit it's mark with full force at close range – the odds of surviving such an injury to the abdomen were slim in the best of circumstances and here they were, in a cave, without proper instruments.

Djaq told Marian as much – to lie about something so serious was not a kindness so she did not sugarcoat the truth nor hide what she knew - she told it straight and in doing so, prepared herself and the others for the worst.

She was not giving up, no, never that, but she was not about to delude herself or anyone else as to Marian's chances of getting through this.

Faced with such frankness, the wounded lady felt that it was time for herself and Robin to have a serious conversation;

"So? Never lie to a dying man."

"You are not going to die and I have never lied to you."

"Oh, come on. We have never once spoken the truth to each other."

"This is not the time to argue."

"Do not tell me when it is time to argue!"

Brave, wonderful Marian - spirited to the last.

"I'm serious. We have never once spoken the truth to each other. For instance, I say you are a fool when I mean you are a hero. I criticise your actions then mimic them myself as The Nightwatchman. I chastise Robin Hood..."

"Shh…"

"I will not be shushed; these might be my last words!"

"No they will not be. They cannot be. Because we should be together! Marian, I should never have left you; I should never have gone to war. It was a mistake! And you were right, I wanted glory but believe me the battlefield is the last place you'll find it."

"You would always have regretted it if you hadn't gone…"

"But not as much as I regret going. Not as much as I regret losing you. Marian, I should not have gone."

"Robin..."

"I..."

"I love you, you love me, we all love each other. Drink the wine."

What a legend. One might perhaps think that Djaq was being a killjoy here but she earned that right by being a surgical ace whose primary concern was saving Marian's life. It was whilst doing that very thing however, that she came to realise that she was in over her head and urgently required assistance. Robin knew the very man and was now counting on Pitts in more ways than one.

He arrived in a whirlwind looking like he'd just fell out of bed. Indeed, for a man who had much to hide, he had shifty written all over his face. It was unsurprising then that Robin was quick to smell a rat. Unfortunately, this realisation arrived at the same time that the guards did (courtesy of the helpful trail of bandages Pitts had left for them to find). It all went downhill from there.

Marian died. Vaisey and Gisborne arrived. Their 'friend and helper' Pitts decided to make a run for it and in doing so ended up with an arrow in his back thus scuppering any hopes of bringing Gisborne to trial for attempted regicide…

All was lost.

And so it would've been were it not for the men (and woman) of Sherwood forest.

They fought like heroes. Like they had nothing left to lose. Hopelessly outnumbered, they charged the opposing force with every expectation to die.

There would be no surrender or capture only victory or defeat.

As an arrow came from left field narrowly missing Gisborne, Robin began to hope. Allan and Will had arrived.

We're all together now. Do your worst Vaisey.

The sheriff blustered. Gisborne and his men were caught on the wrong foot – had not reckoned with such aggressive resistance. Guards were dropping left, right and centre.

Robin Hood did kill.

The core tenet, the guiding principle, the noble aim to do the right thing was gone. Done with. Finished. Over.

Marian was dead. All bets were off.


He should've known.

Fate had never meant it well with him, how could he have ever thought otherwise?

The King was not coming and never had been. It was all a charade. Yet another of Vaisey's schemes.

Guy could've strangled him.

He'd just had to endure one of the worst rides back to the castle he'd ever had – swallowing the bitter pill of defeat, thinking about the men they'd lost whilst trying to apprehend Hood - how he was going to have to arrange the recovery of their bodies for burial, notify their families etc. and what had been Vaisey's highest concern? His tooth.

Then Winchester had showed up as if he owned the place, complete with 'lapdogs' in tow: Cavendish traipsing behind him as per usual and now a new skivvy - some mercenary or other brought in to 'whip the men into shape'.

Any other day Guy would've protested, but having just had their arses handed to them by a small group of forest dwellers, he felt himself inclined to agree with the man.

And now this - the revelation that his plans were based upon a lie and that his future father-in-law was going to walk into a trap. Not a great start to marriage, even he had to admit.

He endured his misery in silence, as was his custom, but it did not go wholly unnoticed.

Francesca had put off greeting her father and Winchester as long as possible but it could not be put off altogether. She'd heard them arrive and ignored the bustle but as Vaisey began yelling at the servants to bring an early lunch, ("I have a special announcement to make…"), she knew she could no longer tarry.

Fortunately, the men were too busy caught up in their own chatter to take much notice of her and so she was able to fade into the background after a few polite enquiries and an introduction to their new friend, a man whose name she forgot no sooner had she heard it.

It was whilst tuning out the uninteresting blather with which Winchester filled every informal conversation that she noticed all was not well with a certain knight. This was the first time she'd seen him since Vaisey informed her of Guy's approaching nuptials and it was a shock to discover that he looked anything but happy.

Whilst Vaisey was busy cursing over lunch because apparently he'd lost a tooth (!), she spoke to her former love on the pretext of congratulating him. The curt nod she received in reply worried her exceedingly.

It had cost her a lot to say anything at all, after all, this was her trying to put a brave face on whilst congratulating the man she loved on his upcoming wedding to someone else but his response was killing her.

Why is he like this? What is the matter?

She stared at him, questions upon questions on the tip of her tongue and yet knew he wouldn't answer any of them. So they sat in an awkward silence whilst she tried to come up with something to say that wouldn't make him more miserable.

Eventually she gestured with a flick of the head to their newest guest and quipped, "Do you think he has any idea what he's getting himself into coming here?"

The relief she felt to see Guy's lips curl into a smirk was immense.

The relief he felt that she was speaking to him at all after what he'd put her through was immeasurable.

"If he has any sense, he'll be out of here before nightfall." He deadpanned.

She huffed a small laugh and he drank it in. Could she ever know how much comfort she brought him with her laughter?

Their smiles faded - weighed down with the burdens of the world and the duty that attended practically every moment of their lives. God knows the years of practice had made them good at putting on a neutral expression whilst pretending to be interested in what their superiors said…

and so it was now, as Vaisey made his announcement.


Winchester took the news well, Vaisey had to admit.

One would've thought that given his reputation as close friend and advisor to Prince John that he'd be worried at the prospect of meeting King Richard but if he was, he didn't let it show.

This left Vaisey disappointed; he'd hoped to rattle the man with his announcement but instead all he got were suspicious looks and observations along the lines of "Hmmm, I wonder that I haven't heard anything about this before - I have my connections you know…"

God, how he hated him.

Detested him with every fibre of his being. He'd not forgotten that his 'good friend' had tried to poison him, nor had Willy's death sated his thirst for revenge but he'd had to make a choice back then and naturally, he'd chosen power. He didn't regret it but it meant that he'd had to put his best laid plans to one side to devote himself to his position as Sheriff of Nottingham.

At first, all had gone well; he'd had no trouble turfing out Edward and Marian or stamping his mark upon his new domain and he'd been confident that soon he could begin with the planning and orchestration of that which he most desired: the murder of his enemy.

Alas, four years later, he still hadn't managed it.

First came the problem of Gisborne's health – had his right hand man been fit, he'd have been all too willing to get rid of Winchester, sadly that hadn't been the case and so Vaisey had been forced to bide his time on that one. (Theoretically, he could've entrusted someone else with the deed but if Willy's blundering and subsequent death had taught him anything, then it was better to stick with who you know).

By the time Gisborne was fit enough to do the job, another murder took precedence – namely that of King Richard. Prince John was most insistent and so once more Vaisey's plans were put on the backburner.

When that assassination failed, it was all Vaisey could do to hang on to his job let alone deal with Winchester and then, to top it all off, Robin of Locksley returned from the holy land to cause him a world of trouble.

And all the while Winchester thrived – cementing his position in Prince John's inner circle, stoking the fire of the prince's indignation with every new failure of Vaisey's to get the situation in Nottingham under control.

By the time his lordship showed up at Locksley in what was an obvious takeover, Vaisey was positively itching to kill the man…

but…

how to do it?

It goes without saying that Vaisey was well acquainted with the ways to end a life – he'd never had any trouble with that, no, the difficulty here lay in doing it in such a way as to not get caught. It was one thing to kill a criminal or an outlaw; it was another to murder a favourite of Prince John.

Good thing then, that Vaisey had something in the works to deal once and for all with the loose end that had troubled him for so long...